Not the Edinburgh Fringe ☆☆☆☆
Above the Stag Theatre, London
For the second year in a row, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been canceled. There are hordes of writers, performers, directors, and producers gasping to get their work in front of an audience. The Above the Stag Theatre, our current favorite Vauxhall venue, has stepped in to give some of them (well, rather a lot of them) the opportunity to find their voice and their followers.
Tonight was the first showcase of the work. Haphazard as a handful of flyers thrust at you on the streets of Edinburgh, Queerguru got a taster menu of the eclectic offerings. We know you have no time to waste after the horrors of lockdown so let us serve you up our pick of the gems of the evening.
Dragprov turned out not to have wasted any imagination on their name and saved their powder for the content of their drag improvisation. On a theme of ‘minor annoyances’ they conjured up spontaneous songs based on the audience’s shouted prompts. Their observations on slow walkers, hair in food, having to pee whilst wearing a catsuit, and snails were en point (or en stiletto) with rhythm, wit, and wicked rhyme. No improv car crash here, it was authentic but still accomplished. This duo should serve up a whole night of laughs for you and your gaggle of gays.
Abigail Carter Simpson concocted a fun but bittersweet PTSD-infused ode to lockdown to the thrums of a ukulele. Our collective experience of furlough, banana bread, face masks, weight gain, and clapping for carers somehow became celebratory under the spell of her blonde Essex girl magic. Check out the dates of her performances on the Above the Stag website.
On a very different note was “Ghostlight: The Unknown Soldier. We got the tiniest initial glimpse of the vision of the writer and the director inspired by their experience of the theatres going dark at the same time as the debate on Black Lives Matter and critical race theory needed artistic exploration. Let’s just say two verses from their female lead singer blew us away and the male lead had a Southern drawl we could not resist. We got no sense of the story, just an invitation to an aesthetic that promised luxury for the senses
The second half was a complete piece of stagecraft written and directed by Glenn Chandler. The Establishment versus Sidney Harry Fox is a theoretical exposition of what really happened in the true case of one of the very rare trials of a son accused of matricide. Sidney Fox (Sebastian Calver) is a chancer and an opportunist and as the saying goes “like mother, like son”. He and his mother (Amanda Bailey) get by on their relationships with people wealthier than themselves as they careen between the poor house, prison, and the bedrooms of their benefactors in the years after the Great War. A courtroom drama told in flashbacks it’s an intriguing tale told in a satisfyingly old-fashioned way. Did he murder his mother to cash in the insurance policy that was due to expire that night? Or was he framed by a homophobic establishment that needed to cover up his connections to the closets of power? No spoilers here other than to say JD Cassels the barrister (played by Mike Duran) brings it all together with the perfect amount of conveniently selected conviction while surrounded by the sound of an atmospheric lone saxophone.
If you love and miss Edinburgh Fringe, or maybe have never had the chance to go, Above The Stag has curated a great taster of all its oddball offerings. Make sure that you take a look at their website because there is definitely something for everyone this summer.
Review by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
Labels: 2021, Andrew Hebden, London Theatre, review
