Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2013

John Robertson's The Dark Room

     If the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is about letting the little guy play with the big guys, about innovation and creativity, about finding a show that at first baffles and then delights, then this is the perfect Fringe show. Based on a text-based Youtube game which swiftly went viral, John Robertson brings us his live version of an eighties' low-budget video game.      It is unlike anything else on the Fringe this year. It relies heavily on audience participation but even more so on Robertson's own wit and the strength of the prepared game screen-shots. It is wonderfully well made and self-consciously low-budget. Prizes range from ancient computer games to rubber gloves and considering the fact that every Fringe contains more Shakespearian adaptations than you can wave a ruff at, it is mind-bendingly awesome that this exists in the first place.      A few minutes' introductory stand-up sees Robertson leaping across the stage in leather trousers and black corset, e

Sleeping Trees' Odyssey

     Just the Tonic at the Caves, 16:40, every day but the 13th       Remember the one about Odysseus? No? Well, neither do the Sleeping Trees, really. Having read the ancient classic a few years ago, this Total Theatre Award shortlisted troupe present the bits of the Odyssey that they can remember, and hope we can ignore the bits they've forgotten.       By way of breath-taking distraction, the trio chant, dance, sing, leap around and provide their own sound-effects and inner monologues without the need of such modern things as lighting or sound techies. After all, when originally performed or recited, the Homeric classic would have been accompanied by just these kinds of wild gesticulations, enthusiastic facial expressions, and sky-high suspensions of disbelief.      The show is the last of the troupe's Stories project, which has relied entirely on the performers, rather than props and scenery. This has become a common theme in low-budget shows, but in this case in part