The Titanic Orchestra, Theatre Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ivan Barnev, Stuart Crowther, John Hannah, Heidi Niemi, Jonathan Rhodes.

The strains of The Last Waltz, perhaps the loneliness of Nearer To My God Than Thee or the finality of Autumn should with illusion be observed and be heard as the lives of four alcoholic tramps living the same existence day in, day out on the railways is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of another, a man who can see their lives and the fantasy of humanity’s deception that lives in them all

The Titanic Orchestra, Theatre Review. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

House Band @ Chat 65, Gig Review. Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Nestled away from the general confusion and hubbub that can be part and parcel of the Edinburgh Fringe, the long luxurious dip into a world of make believe, story-telling, comedic illusion offered to the long lines of visitors that trundle up many a cobbled street and down many a summer’s evening path, the quiet reflective path is sometimes a soothing prospect.

The chance to seek salvation for a brief time is always one filled with hope that even in calm introspection of what has been seen, the glory of the spectacle, that the chance to still be entertained and knowledge sought rides high amongst many a Fringe attendee.

House Band @ Chat 65, Gig Review. Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(388 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Souvenirs, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Walsh, Ellice Stevens, Oscar Owen, Kitty Murdoch, Tommy Loftus, Ella Tebay.

Children can be cruel, it is in their cruelty that they either learn how to be adults that care and show empathy or they descend like monkeys into the art of throwing faeces around to show bitterness and superiority over others. It is the state of such things that can also see a child rise to the point where they fit in more closely with the adult world and its often doomed relationships.

Souvenirs, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Cheque Please, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Madeleine Hardy, Nick Slater, Diderik Ypma, Libby Boyd, Genevieve Cunnell, Becca Jones.

It is the bill that can never be truly split, the one that becomes the sole reserve of the person to whom the experience has affected with greater clouded reasoning than another and the one that whilst people may want to go Dutch with you upon, to share in the bleakness that crowds the everyday, they also want to leave their own version of a tip firmly implanted in that person’s mind. The idea of asking for the Cheque Please, is one that is shrouded in air of finality and calculated judgement.

Cheque Please, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(455 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Arrogance Of Youthful Desire Unfulfilled.

Your towering beauty I wish I could see

up close and personal,

every imperfection, every slighted line,

and how I wish I could have known

you when I was younger

and with conceited youth know

I could have conquered you,

loved you and have every inch

of you mapped in my mind

forever.

 

You are older than I,

yet so very young,

and I find myself disgracefully suffering

from the illusion that you,

in some respects,

have a daily virginal quality to you

The Arrogance Of Youthful Desire Unfulfilled. full post

(213 words, estimated 51 secs reading time)

Ian Lavender, Don’t Tell Him Pike: Part Two. More Tales From The Not So Stupid Boy

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ian Lavender is a household name, there isn’t surely a person alive in the country who hasn’t seen his performance as the young scarf wearing Home Guard soldier in Dad’s Army and at some point not identified with affable, cheeky and sentimental Private Frank Pike.

Don’t Tell Him Pike: Part Two. More Tales From The Not So Stupid Boy is one of those moments during the Edinburgh Festival in which time slips by with the glorious realisation that you have spent an hour with a genuinely much loved British actor and yet whose charm and easy going style as he holds conversation with Steven McNicoll is to be admired and seen as thoughtful and homely.

Ian Lavender, Don’t Tell Him Pike: Part Two. More Tales From The Not So Stupid Boy full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

The Missing Hancocks, Theatre Review. Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Kevin McNally, Robin Sebastian, Susy Kane, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall.

Two microphones stamped with the discerning, almost foreboding B.B.C. logo stand at the front of the stage and five perfectly placed chairs are to be seen in the background, the sense of occasion was already palpable, the sound of quite a number in the crowd already rehearsing under their breath the theme tune to perhaps the absolute master of British Comedy in the last 70 years and his sensational programme written by the only two men who could truly capture and harness his genius. This was not just any old event at the Edinburgh Fringe, this was one in which the spirit of The Lad himself, Birmingham’s Tony Hancock, was given a new voice in which to thrill the crowd all over again.

The Missing Hancocks, Theatre Review. Music Hall, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Carol Ann Duffy. Studio 2, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The World’s Wife, the attention of the wrapped and poetic cool could not perhaps compete with the Edinburgh Festival’s more edgy and dark comedians, the abundance of plays or even the thought of a trek upon the extinct remains of Arthur’s Seat. However, for the poetic savvy, the ones who see instinctively the value in the power of words delivered by the exulted Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as she looked her audience in the eye and read from a selection of her works, this was as close to a heavenly experience as could possibly be imagined.

Carol Ann Duffy. Studio 2, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

The Last Laugh, Theatre Review. Studio 2, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Kier McAllister, Larah Bross.

Comedy can be personal, it has to be to be turned from the anecdotal moan down to the pub in front of a few well wishers and friends to the point of no return where you are stood a few feet away from people that you are about to open up about a significant portion of your life to. Comedy must be personal when it means you are going to exorcise a demon on a roasting furnace and get The Last Laugh.

The Last Laugh, Theatre Review. Studio 2, The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

My Feet Of Clay.

I feel blessed in the company you offer,

the simple acts of mercy, forgiveness

and to listen without judgement is

something I can only ever hope to emulate,

albeit in way that never steps on your toes,

for who am I

but  a fool with clay feet

to hope that that I could match

your abiding, soaring

spirit that lights a beacon

far beyond the walls of Leith.

 

Calm assuredness,

a way with kind words

in which I feel that I am not being

My Feet Of Clay. full post

(150 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)