Thought Thief
Peter Antoniou
Sweet Grassmarket

There’s a long tradition of mentalism at the Fringe. Peter Antoniou’s act is geared around the question of whether your mind is safe. He claims to be able to read and direct thoughts using only the power of his mind (if true, you’d think he’d direct my mind to give him a five-star review!) During his show he drops in comments about remote viewing, psychic spying and all the usual material us Forteans hope for. The effects he performs, though standard fare, are performed well technically, and have many in the audience confused and bemused. And yet…
While Antoniou is entertaining, and has the mind reading down no problem, he needs to be a little more forceful and to find a persona to inhabit as currently he’s rather lacking in stage presence.
He’s got the makings, but he’s not there yet – I look forward to seeing him again in a few years time.


The Bone House
Village Theatre
Underbelly

The Bone House is a play about serial killers. Without giving too much away, Eugene Crowley is a ‘mind hunter’ who has spent the past few years tracking down a serial killer by the name of the Midnight Cowboy whose M.O. is to commit his murders in front of an audience. Crowley links the Midnight Cowboy to a number of killings and even manages to track down a surviving eyewitness, who he interviews in what is the weakest part of the show. Mostly, however, this is a good play that takes you along false trails and leads you away from your comfort zones, and is well worth the investment of an hour of your life.


Bongo Club Cabaret
Rhymes With Purple
Bongo Club

There are so many acts performing during the Fringe that it is genuinely impossible to see them all. Thank heavens, then, for cabaret shows that feature a selection of these performers; if nothing else, you can get some tips as to who is worth going to see.
There were several highlights of the Bongo Club Cabaret the night I visited: the Evangenitals (so good I bought the CD) performing their take on the Biblical creation story, an impossibly camp compère, a Geordie escapologist and a contortionist. Different nights will feature different performers, but if they’re all of this calibre a memorable evening is guaranteed.


Music From the Penguin Café
Queen’s Hall

Music From The Penguin Café is, as the name implies, a concert of music by the Penguin Café Orchestra. When founder and composer Simon Jeffes died in 1997 it looked like the Orchestra would die with him, so it’s awesome to see Jeffes’ son, Arthur, leading a talented group of like-minded musicians, keep the memory alive in this way. It’s a shame, particularly in the case of pieces like ‘Telephone and Rubber Band’ and ‘Music for a Found Harmonium’, that the tunes are simply introduced and played, without any explanation of their back story; still, Arthur’s father would be proud.

Take The Empire: The Great Big Victorian Game Show
Dastardly Productions
C Central

Going to see a show at the Fringe is, in many cases, to take pot luck. Sometimes they’re brilliant and sometimes they’re not. The publicity for Take The Empire promised “an unforgettable evening of devious questions, impossible challenges, decadent debauchery and delightful chaos” – if your idea of an unforgettable question is “what part of a wolf am I?” and your take on an impossible challenge is to make the Eiffel tower out of cardboard then this is the show for you. Two teams of two are taken from the audience and pitted against each other, and there are some interesting rounds – surely I can’t be the only one who would like to find out a bit more about once fashionable Victorian diseases? Yet while all this might be great for a stag night, or if you’re drunk, or if it’s your friends that are on stage, if you don’t fall into any of those categories – like me – you’ll be left wishing you’d chosen to see a different show.


Dawn of Quixote: Chapter the First
Evangenitals
Venue 13

Ok, so I may have let myself in for it by going to see a show which describes itself as: “An epic examination of the synaptic dawning of a simple idea resulting in extravagant consequences: philosophical swordfights, musical mayhem, word-slinging and dangerous adventures ride the edge of (in)sanity ... with continual reference to Unamuno.” But it was by the Evangenitals (see Bongo Club Cabaret review, above) and it was the only chance I would get to see them, as their late night show had ended its run by the time I became aware of them. The music is great – a thumping soundtrack with improvisational twists throughout. The play itself is interesting in parts – imaginative use of props, absurd characters worthy of a Terry Gilliam movie – but it’s difficult to see where it’sgoing and what it’s trying to say.

Pete Firman’s Magic Show
Pete Firman
Udderbelly's Pasture

Pete Firman, from Channel 5’s Magic Show, is a good magician but not brilliant; his genial patter, however, and likeable persona make for a winning show. The effects he performs are all standard fare but he does make it an enjoyable night and when he uses volunteers on stage they’re all game and none are embarrassed as can happen with some lesser magicians. Overall a show for all the family.


The Never Man
The Penny Dreadfuls
Pleasance Courtyard

The popular The Never Man is basically a camper-than-Christmas jolly Boy’s Own spy romp. It features mysterious island lairs with even more mysterious, and indeed sinister, mad scientists, and all characters are played by the cast of three, which makes for some frantic running around whilst trying to get into costume for the next bit. Accents are dodgy, characterisation scant, plot holes large, but who cares – it’s fun all the way!


Borges and I
Idle Motion
Zoo Venues

Every year I like to go for a wild card or two – a show I know nothing about and have no expectations of, or a genre with which I am unfamiliar. And thus I found myself watching a life of Jorge Luis Borges told through the medium of dance. Borges, a twentieth-century Argentinean writer and poet who worked as a librarian to make ends meet, was a man whose whole life was devoted to books, so it’s fitting that his story should be told here through the framing device of the troubles and tribulations of a book group. The surrealism of Borges’ writing was overshadowed by the surrealism of his life. Sadly, in his late fifties Borges became blind and it was only after this that he started to receive the worldwide acclaim he deserved. Modern dance is not to everyone’s taste, and I found one or two sections where books are wantonly thrown around and mutilated distasteful. Still, though I am sure some of the nuances were lost on me, this is an enjoyable show, well put together and well performed.


Hayton on Homicide
Moulin Exes
The Space

A gentle show of which mater and pater would no doubt have approved, and with a real Fortean theme.
The setting is Cambridge, 1883, and there’s a clash of worldviews between a husband and wife: he believes there is a scientific explanation for everything; she is a committed spiritualist. Whilst Mr Hayton is working on forensic lectures (such as pioneering the use of fingerprints in crime detection) his wife is keeping company with the founders of The Society for Psychical Research (a group which many of the audience apparently thought had been made up by the writer purely for the benefit of the play). A local haunting soon takes a turn for the worse when the case transforms into a murder, and both Haytons take a personal interest. Naturally one uses science and the other the séance.
Hayton on Homicide is sedately paced, and is never going to win any of the huge awards on offer at the Fringe, but it leaves one feeling good to have seen it. And it was sponsored by the SPR.


Terrors of the Black Museum
Black Museum
Espionage

Every year an increasing number of shows are put on – generally in pubs – as part of the Free Fringe. You go along and if you like it you pop some money in a bucket as you leave. If you don’t like it I’m not sure what you’re supposed to pop in the bucket!
Terrors of the Black Museum, performed by Dan McKee, Ben Smith and Laurence Tuck, is a comedy, not the horror that some audience members seemed to have been expecting. If you’ve ever seen one of those 1970s Hammer films with a group of individuals recounting the story of how they have arrived in a place which subsequently turns out to be hell, then you’ll recognise the scenario. Clearly inspired by Lovecraft, with dark nameless indescribable horrors and departments of Cryptozoology and even a book which is a catalogue of books that have not yet been written, this is and enjoyable experience that would benefit from being shortened and tightened up.


Opening Night of the Living Dead
Obstacle Productions
C Cubed

Yet more zombies – a bit of an underlying theme at this year’s Fringe.
An am dram production of Romeo and Juliet is taking place when the Zombie Apocalypse happens. Regrettably, the cast of the show have not seen How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse [another Fringe show – see review] so they are surely doomed. However, being the true thespians that they are, the show must go on, so whilst backstage (which is what we mostly see) there is zombie mayhem, in the stalls there is a blissfully ignorant audience. The show includes a Scoobie Doo skit – running up and down corridors being followed by zombies, complete with constant swapping of places – which is absolutely hilarious. Opening Night of the Living Dead is a bit of a romp; whilst one or two sections are weak, overall it holds up well and at the end everyone gets to exit stage left pursued by a zombie…


Leganda
Moscow State Circus
Meadows Theatre Big Top

Grigori Rasputin was born in 1869 and died in 1917. Except he didn’t. He has now found a new career as ringmaster for the Moscow State Circus’ latest show, Leganda. The historical(ish) story of Rasputin is referred to throughout the show as a basic framework to hang everything on: to be honest it doesn’t need it – and a cheesy rendition of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’ is a definite low point – but what the heck. There are several highlights, including a jaw-dropping performance by Anton and Nataliya Popazov. It’s called ‘Crossbow’ and evokes the guest spots of Hans and Helga Moretti on The Paul Daniels Magic Show. At one point, with the crossbow aimed at a spinning target, I realised that if they missed I was pretty much in the line of fire! Another feat involves a stunning cascade effect where one crossbow bolt fires off another and so on until the last one strikes an apple above Anton’s head. Other acts include the Russian Swing, acrobalance, juggling and clowns. Act 1 closes with the Wheel of Death, an apparatus that has quite literally lived up to its name at times. The performances on this are some of the most death-defying I have ever seen, and I don’t know about the performers but my heart was definitely in my mouth. If this was the finale to the whole show the evening would have been perfect; unfortunately, the last act of the night, the Russian Swing, can’t quite live up to it. The whole show, though, is a tour de force.