Peter Graystone
@petergraystone
Writer, theatre-lover, follower of Jesus
#edfringe Dracula: Lucy’s Dream is one of those huge, international, near-wordless shows that I usually love. And I’ve seen this company’s work before. Life-size puppets, video, seamless movement. But this was very slow-moving and the tone didn’t vary. Nice bats though. ⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Mrs Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library turns out to be about Hannah Arendt (The Banality of Evil). She was imprisoned by the Gestapo before escaping to America. The encounter with the police as political involvement becomes a crime. Interesting when you know what lay ahead ⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe How to get a full audience. Choose a title which is part of people’s life. The audience for Book Club was 49 identical elderly ladies and me. But the play is a pleasant surprise. Satire lands. Characters are believable. Issues matter. As a first play it has promise. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe I knew I was going to love Around The World in Eighty Toys, and I did. Tiny Victorian toys live-filmed on a big screen tell the Jules Verne story in the style of George Melies. Clockwork, sleight of hand, shadows, conjuring, flip books. Old-school delightful. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe I had to come down to earth eventually. In Eve and Adam, a woman goes back to Eden in a time machine and makes Adam eat the apple instead of Eve. Consequently a different world. It was energetic and an original idea. But the characters are one-dimensional and the jokes struggled. ⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Oh my goodness! Man Sings The Same Song Over and Over Again For an Hour. How on earth do I explain this? Exactly what the title says happens. But it is desperately funny. I won’t say what the song is. The audience groaned. But at the end we were dancing and begging for more. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe John Kearns was predictably hilarious. He’s had a relationship break-up and he’s facing it by listening to Alec Guinness read TS Elliot’s The Wasteland. It would actually be tragic if it weren’t for the perfectly timed jokes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe I’ve never seen such a West-End-ready show at the Fringe as Bliss. Catchy & varied tunes, witty lyrics, great choreography. For children it’s got princesses, unicorns and acres of pink. For adults it’s got cynicism, feminism and nostalgia. To say I loved it would be an understatement ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe I got myself totally wrapped up in the lives of the two young people in Water Colour. Their individual stories are on different trajectories, but a ten minute meeting on a bridge over the Clyde changes their destinies. Beautifully acted, hopeful stuff. I liked this a lot. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe There is an awful lot of death, birth, loss and Catholicism in Cathy. But nothing said about it is very enlightening. The only thing that keeps it afloat is an all-guns-blazing comic tour de force by Elaine C Smith. Shallow, but the audience loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Oh my goodness Bog Witch is something else. Bryony Kimmings turns her first year of living in the country into a wildly theatrical extravaganza, with video, human-sized animals, songs and a stage that fills with earth. Tremendously moving and full of spiritual yearning. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Supposing is the new Zinnie Harris play, riffing on Greek Cassandra myths so that foresight is both a blessing and a curse. It plumbs depths of rage, but holds back some sweet surprises. Staged in a bare way, but very satisfying. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Exit is an utterly terrifying circus for four men. A set of five doors becomes an almost farcical setting for ins and outs, but then the daredevil stakes rise as walls start to rotate, leaps and catches escalate, the set becomes a giant balancing teeterboard. I was gobsmacked. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Ended the day at the first preview of Daniel Kitson’s new show Thrum. It’s about wanting to be wise and good but knowing there are ulterior motives. It was consistently funny as it rambled through 105 minutes, but I hope it will eventually be a winner as a round hour. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Though the Shortbread Tin is so, so good. An examination of the integrity of Scottish identity by looking at historical and personal hoaxes. Witty and thoughtful, and shot through with gorgeous a capella singing in Gaelic. Loved it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe I absolutely loved Henry Paker, Pencil Case. I guffawed all through. He’s an illustrator, and he talks about the secrets of his art, while drawing live cartoons which are projected on a screen. Unbelievably quick responses to audience participation. A generous, uplifting show. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe To be honest I found Pilate: the Lost Gospel hard work. It’s a character study, passionately performed, about a fascinating man. But it’s just not very dramatic, even when the stories are remarkable. ⭐️⭐️
#edfringe Mike Wozniak’s show is an utterly irresistible shaggy dog story inviting sleuthing from the audience to solve the local crime of The Bench being set on fire. Genuinely hilarious, and absurdly clever in bringing it to a satisfying conclusion with a huge laugh at precisely 60 minutes. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#edfringe The Plot is a retelling of the Gunpowder Plot by two minor characters on the eve of their execution, inhabiting dozens of roles to meditate on what it’s worth giving your life for. Intriguing and physically inventive, but hampered by audibility problems. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
As I was going into Cleansed I did ask myself, ‘Why on earth am I putting myself through this again?’ nearly 30 years on. It is absolutely brutal in asking whether love can survive torture. But there is one moment of iridescent beauty, which is what stays with you. I’m glad I went … I think.
After 55 years How The Other Half Loves still delivers huge laughs. It’s now played as a period piece, and the sexual mores of the time evoked gasps, then chuckles. Roger Allam gives a fantastic performance, and the production is slick. But the jury’s out on whether it needed to be revived.
Gasp-inducing Anish Kapoor show. Mirrors that suck the sky down. Holes in the wall that go on forever. Vast volcanic shapes so red your eyes dazzle. Objects that reflect you and then disappear you. (Also huge piles of intestines that seem to creep towards you, which were a bit too creepy for me.)
Saw a work-in-progress of Max Olesker’s Making The Cut. It’s already very funny and heartwarming, and by the time it gets to #edfringe it’s going to be a winner. He has converted to Orthodox Judaism in order to marry. It’s a three year journey of sacrifice and determination. Love emerges triumphant.
The RSC Venus and Adonis at the Barbican is absolutely fantastic. As funny as a farce at the start. Then deeply moving at the end. Who would have believed that I could get so involved in the life of a puppet? Simon Russell Beale is a superb narrator. There’s even a miniature coup de theatre. Lovely!
The Guilty is INCREDIBLY TENSE. A policeman trying to save a life alone in a control room. Everything about it is brilliant. Near the end is a reveal that, in fifty years of theatre-going, I have never seen anything like before. Only an hour long, but quite honestly I couldn’t have taken any more.
It’s no exaggeration to say the RSC Arturo Ui is sensational. A circus-like production in which the clowns get less and less funny on their route to nazism. Mark Gatiss will win all the everything. A chilling performance wavering between charm and evil. And the up-to-date epilogue left me poleaxed.
Everything about the RSC The Tempest is how I want it - a properly stormy storm, absolute clarity of the story, sweet music, a sense of magic, excellent verse-speaking, an uncomfortable colonialism, a real romance, threat, but then a pervading kindness and grace. I was extremely touched.