Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Was Paul Merton on pain meds whilst doing his improv show? Yes, AND it was still a masterclass in improvisational drama. It would take forever for me to list every brilliant thing about Every Brilliant Thing, but the best was when our very own Sky got involved in some audience interaction that included the title of the book they were reading, Why Buildings Fall Down, getting what was probably the biggest laugh of the show. Puella Eterna was a comedic show about the stages of life, covering birth to death and everything in between. It was Mr Wakerell’s suggestion, which he jokingly regretted when it took a turn for the weird, but it was madly hilarious nonetheless.

With all these comedies, it may be easy to forget that this was a serious drama trip. It was in the same room where we saw two of the most thought-provoking pieces of theatre. Batsh*t, a surreal, stylised commentary on the sanitisation of women’s mental health, told the true story of the actress’s grandmother who was admitted to an asylum and underwent ECT. We also saw A Knock on the Roof, a moving and incredibly relevant show about the the mental anguish that comes with the knowing inevitability in waiting for your home to be destroyed.

On our final evening, we saw the highly lauded NewsRevue, a show of sung parodies and sketches about politicians and celebrities. And with the state of the world right now, the jokes practically wrote themselves. Being the theatre kids that we are, we were the only ones in the crowd to get the Come From Away song parody, and at times during the show hysterics ensued. The final performance we watched was the most… memorable: Weer, whilst billed as a ‘tender 90s rom-drom’, ended up being our ninth one-person show of the Fringe. Yes, 9 out of the 12 shows we saw were one-person performances. The keen mathematicians among you (of which I know there are many) will notice that this is 75%, a surprisingly high number. You may be wondering how a romantic play is a one-person performance. One became two as the performer and clown, Natalie Palamides, dressed up one side of her as a woman and the other as a man, only needing to turn to face the other way to change characters. It was quite a rollercoaster of a show, with many twists and turns, and wildly unexpected revelations.

We finished off the trip with a taste of Edinburgh’s best cuisine – deep fried mars bars and an iron bru – and took the train home, trying to ward off a heart attack.

Jas and Sky (VIII)