Friday 18 August 2017

Big Bite-Size Breakfast (Menu 1), Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Fringe

A return to the Dome to see the food-and-drink-toting Bite Size crowd again, in the same format as the previously reviewed Menu 2, but with five mini-dramas this time.  Not as consistently funny as that previous performance, but offering some more thought provoking moments by way of compensation.

In the opener, A Night to Remember, a couple trying to boost their flagging relationship discover the dangers of role playing in a public space.  Rebrand is smart and very funny, as a PR company try to give the military an image makeover.  Their shallow manipulation of language is both hilarious and cringeworthy, and I loved the idea of the army having a fighting fixture list.

Wishes is the shortest of the quintet, a simple idea about a man who collects wishes and can sometimes make them come true.  Fast forward to 2123 and a society where love has been made illegal and a bland tranquility has become the new normal, and showing any sing of passion can have serious consequences.  I Do has some excellent jokes, but there's a sinister moral undertone to the tale.  Stephen Laycock is great as the man who may or may not be quite what he seems.

Valkyrie at the Roller Disco highlights that all too common problem of romance between a human and an immortal, when a roller derby star falls in love with a winged warrior.  It's as wonderfully daft as it sounds and Claira Watson-Parr is clearly having a lot of fun dressed as a cross between Wonder Woman and Pygar while being generally god-like.  A fine way to end another excellent show.

No comments:

Post a Comment