Thanks to all who saw our Edinburgh Fringe shows this August, and congratulations to everyone involved in making the productions such a success. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2012!
Chat Masala’s guest booker, Andrew Rogers, on Edinburgh
‘I cannot off the top of my head think of a better gig to have had.’
Read more here.
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5 stars for Oedipus from Theatreguide
‘Don’t come to Berkoff expecting understatement; come for the uninhibited but highly disciplined joy of open theatricality, here in the service of a play that fully responds to the approach.’
Read the review here.
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Somewhere Beneath It All gets 4 stars from One4Review
‘Nichol is a top class actor too, and anyone coming to see this many layered production will be able to testify too.’
Read the full review here.
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4 stars for An Instinct For Kindness from The Financial Times
Uncomplicated storytelling also makes a direct connection with listeners. In An Instinct for Kindness (Pleasance Dome), Chris Larner uses his more familiar comic skills to leaven and draw us into the poignant real-life tale of his trip to a Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland with his MS-suffering ex-wife.
The full review is not available online so we have put it in full here.
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An Instinct For Kindness gets five stars from Whatsonstage
‘An Instinct for Kindness raises profound questions – about life, death, love and much more’
You can read the full review here.
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Oedipus receives four stars from Fringe Review
‘This is an exceptional piece of theatre.’
Read the full review here.
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Lights, Cameras, Walkies Zoe Gardner talks about her Fringe
‘As always it’s been stimulating and as always I’ve learnt stuff.’
Read the full write up here.
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4 Stars for Somewhere Beneath It All from Metro
Hard-hitting drama burns bright
The full review is below as it is not yet available online.
Appearances can be deceptive. This blackly humorous monologue written by Dave Florez, a talented graduate of the Royal Court’s Young Writers’ Programme, begins as a stream of consciousness of a young man called Kevin (Phil Nichol), who is sitting in a London cafe and imagining lurid sexual acts with the pretty Lithuanian waitress. Alas, Kevin is too shy to ask out Daina.
‘I retreat to the toilets like a French soldier,’ he tells us shame-faced, having already shared salacious images that take root in his mind every time she flashes a friendly smile or brushes past his table.
Kevin is brash and self-loathing, a volatile combination that could seriously alienate us as an audience. Then without warning, Nichol sends a wrecking ball through the fourth wall. ‘What a load of crap,’ he sneers, pouring scorn on the lyrical words he has just been spouting.
Fantasy and reality dance hand in hand for the rest of the show as Nichol, playing a heightened version of himself, draws attention to his meagre stage props (‘This is an extended metaphor for life and the extent of my budget’) and becomes increasingly vociferous and abusive about Jews, women and the pink pound. ‘What have the gays given us?’ he sneers. ‘Theatre and Aids. No, I’m joking. They also gave us cabaret.’
He then reveals the sobering truth about his character, a Scottish lad called Kevin MacDonald, delivered in the form of ‘the compulsory PowerPoint presentation’. Nichols is utterly fearless and director Hannah Eidinow guides us through the shifts in tone, peeling back the layers of Florez’s script that muddies fact and fiction beyond recognition.
Damon Smith
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