arm/10PM FESTVAL

DUPREE OR NOT DUPREE

A one woman, one video screen and six alter-ego show. Dolly Dupree and her triends (bri-nylon game show host to bimbo weathergirl) are trapped in _ the cable network trom hell. It’s jokes 3,, I, for the girls as they carefully crush ' :, anything the guys in the audience were ( teellng remotely good about.

Men are ordered on stage to draw their genitalia which are checked out to make sure they’re telling the truth. There are cackles of laughter from the females in the audience, embarrassed chuckles trom the chaps. Dupree is best within her characterisations, but

Dolly Dupree: woman of many alter-egos '_

Weller)

(£4).

in her real(ish) guise as stand-up some ot the gags miss the mark. (Rory

Dupree or Ilot Dupree (Fringe) Dolly Dupree, Southside (Venue 82) 667 7365, until 2 Sept (not 29, 30), 9pm, £5 .

COMEDY 5

SPANK

Ooh er. missus! There’s a title to appeal to the public schoolboy in us all and there's much in the show which will appeal to schoolboys of all ages. Anna Bengo and Lucy Montgomery zap their way through a series of bawdy sketches. spoofs and send-ups targetting holiday reps. 70s television shows and anything else that gets in their way.

The humour skids between the relatively sophisticated and bone- skulled laddishness. but in general is imaginative and

.157:

Spank: schoolboy humour

perfectly capable of slicing up low-brow culture as easily as the dome-headed variety. There are plenty of chuckles but you’re unlikely to have tears of laughter streaming down your face. (Jonathan Trew)

I Spank (Fringe) Cambridge Feminist Revue. C Venue (Venue I9) 226 5138. until 2 Sept (not 31). 9.30pm. £5 (£3.50).

COMEDY A LOT OF PEOPLE ASK

ME . . . AN AUDIENCE WITH DAME SYBILLE

Dame Sybille Thomdyke has been a luvvie for decades. She grew up with seventeen Dutch barbers on a barge and a bunch of nuns. Soon the first inklings of her birthright became apparent. Oor Syb was born to be on stage. Sometime Corky And The Juice Pig Sean Cullen is perfect as the sublimely daffy old dear. Friends with Peter (O’Toole) and foes with Ollie (Reed). Sybille totes her clutchie

handbag like a weapon and fingers spite as the key to a long life in the theatre. Cullen’s OAP raconteur is no Balding Grey. but when the Canadian’s trademark surreal inventiveness takes off. Sybille the thesp is simply darling. darling. (Craig McLean)

I A lot (it People Ask Me . . . An Audience With Dame Sybille (Fringe) Sean Cullen. Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2l51. until 2 Sept (not 29 Aug). 8pm. £5 (£4).

COMEDY

HAROLD ON THE HOLYROOD

Meet Harold and Frank Booth. They grew up in Chicago. where they still live most of the time. They‘re well-known there. and well-liked. for good reasons. Harold isn't a person. but a style of sustained. ‘longform‘ improvisational performance which takes an idea. tosses it around between a handful of actors. wanders off down various alleyways and attempts to reunite its themes at some unspecified rendezvous.

When approached with skill. Harold can be highly entertaining. inventive and even dramatically intense. That’s where Frank Booth comes in. Frank Booth is the resident Harold team from lmprovOlympic. whose alumni include Mike Meyers. Its members are funny. creative. intelligent and disciplined. never competing. but working as a team to support each other's ideas. It‘s a pity that members of rival

company ComedySportz

(our motto: ‘Comedy with a Competitive Edge‘) who attended the opening night were competing so furiously for the loudest. most raucous laugh award. (Andrew Bumet)

? I llarold on the llolyrood i (Fringe) Chicago lmprov

Syndicate. Moray House

Union (Venue I68) 556 OIO2. until 2 Sept. £5 (£4).

COMEDY

SEAN LOCK

Sean Lock hits the stage in an Elvis suit. circa the Oxfam years. to tumultuous (canned) applause. By the end of an inventive and occasionally inspired hour of stand-up. he earned the real thing.

Sean lock: the (let. years

Dylan Moran: verging on brllllant

Better known for sketch- based comedy such as last year‘s roadie spoof Rock. this is Lock’s first visit to Edinburgh withjust a mic and the aforementioned suit.

In a few lazy moments.

Lock's style resorts to a kind of sub-Jack Dee drawl. but mostly his engaging Cockney geezer character has a distinctive style of its own. The best laughs come when Lock does good. old-fashioned gags; how novel. (Eddie Gibb) I Sean lock (Fringe) The Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550. until 2 Sept (not 3|) £8/£7 (£7/£6).

THEATRE

SUMMIT CONFERENCE

If the mistresses of Hitler and Mussolini ever met for tea and cakes. you can bet yourjackboots girly chat would be the last thing on their minds. Robert David Macdonald’s sly little play takes this imagined meeting as its premise as Eva Braun and Clara Petacci raid the drinks cabinet and role play their respective partners. Suddenly the fate of the western world hangs in the balance.

Gender is subverted even further with the systematic humiliation of a young soldier assigned to look after them. Back projections of American films offer the pair a glamour they can only yearn for under the restrictive atmosphere of the Third Reich. This is a stylish. irreverant and fetishistically sexy production which only occasionally sags under the weight of historical fact. (Neil Coo er)

I Summit Con erence (Fringe) Quest Theatre Company. Church Hill Theatre (Venue 46) 447 01 l l. 10 Aug—2 Sept. 8.10pm. £5 (£4).

COMEDY

SELECTED DRIVEL

It's been said before. but worth repeating there's a touch of the Dave Allen

about young lrish stand- up Dylan Moran. And Sean Hughes. And Eddie lzzard. But increasingly he is becoming his own man. after a disappointing couple of years since winning the So You Think You 're Funny I” competition in 1993. Moran's louche. observational humour draws on the most pressing concerns of a young man about town: drinking. hangovers. beer guts, women. the Catholic church. His more whimsical. off-beat ramblings sometimes lose their way (as he warns us they might). but when Moran hits his stride. which is often during this hour-long show. he verges on brilliant. (Eddie Gibb) I Selected Drivel (Fringe) Dylan Moran. The Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550. until 2 Sept (not 31) £7.50/£6.5() (£6.50/£5.50).

THEATRE JOURNEY WEST

‘Singaporeans based in London' describes both Tripitaka Theatre and the subject of this one-man show Journey West. Essentially a piece of ‘physical theatre'. painting. mime. masks and monologue are used to explore the comic stereotypes and alienated reality ofex-pat Singaporean life. In a bravura performance. Ivan Heng (a Fringe First winner in 1993) precisely captures British prejudices and accents. demonstrates how to eat a live monkey brain and succeeds in running round in circles backwards. At one point he complains that as a Singaporean actor the only parts he's offered are businessman. drug dealers and illegal immigrants. He deserves better. This piece carries an audience participation warning. Be prepared to pass round an imaginary joint. (Ben Brown)

I Journey West (Fringe) Tripitaka Theatre Company. Hill Street Theatre (Venue 4 l) 226 6522. until 3 Sept. 8.35pm. £7/£6 (£6/£5).

DO The List 18-24 Aug 1995