Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu One, Pleasance One, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 For us the first was last, completing our viewing of this year's menu trio with number one on the list.  Which turned out to be the best of the set.

SUCH DREAMS AS STUFF IS MADE ON

When robbery and snobbery work together.  If you're going to be robbed you want it to be one that's going to impress the neighbours.  Even if that means giving the thieves a helping hand.  An amusing satire on social climbing and class pretensions.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING ON THE PHONE

Two people on a bus, both on their phones, each with their own issues to deal with.  The one-sided conversations interlace to hilarious effect, but underneath are two tales os sadness.  Clever stuff, beautifully played.

THE GAFFER

It's the FA Cup final so you'd expect everyone to be keyed up and ready to go.  So why is the manager of the underdogs sitting it out and not bothering to give a team talk?  His assistant, and the club's psychiatirst, trt to understand to cajole, to bully if neccessary, but nothing seems to work.  A surreal twist provides the truth, in a world where reality and virtual reality are so hard to tell apart.  

EMERGENCY CONTACT

His ex has turned up at the hospital because she's still, years after they split, listed as his emergency contact.  So when she finds that it's only a broken arm she's not too happy at having to come.  And even less happy when there seems to be some manipulation going on.  Very funny comedy with a twist and killer punchline.

ANNND SCENE (OF THE CRIME)

When the police are called to the theatre to invesigate a murder within an improv group, they find that the actors are not going to behave like normal witnesses.  So if you can't beat 'em...  Very funny comedy with some excellent dialogue and an interesting premise.

Dean Owens and the Sinners, Spiegeltent, St Andrew Square, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

What is there to say that I haven't said before in several reviews of Dean's shows?  The line up was the same as the last time I saw him, last December, but without the drummer present.  The quality, both of music and Owens' storytelling, was high as ever.  A fun show, that left me buzzing with enjoyment.

Shaparak Khorsandi, Pleasance : Scatterbrain, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Khorsandi talking about life since her ADHD diagnosis.  It's still chaotic, but at least she understands why now.

She admits it's unstructured, and it certainly feeels random at times, but there is more cohernece to it all than she suggests.  Even if she does lose her way a few times.  She's got a lot of interest to say on how she copes with her condition, how it affects her choildren, and just how mental health aware the latter are, in a way that would have been impossible for her generation.  She now understand s her younger self a lot better though.

If this sounds a bit like a rambling form of self therapy that wouldn't be far from the truth.  But redeemed by being very funny at times, with some brilliant punchlines, and rolling along at breakneck speed.  There's a lot to think about too, so it's very far from being a bad show.  Just be prepared to accept confusion....  

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu Three, Pleasance One, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Strawberries, croissants and coffee.  And the next five plays on the menu.

SOMEPNE'S SITTING THERE

She's on a Tinder date, in a busy pub, and he's late.  The battle to keep him a seat is getting on her nerves.  So when he does eventually turn up... will it work out?  Because she has already shown us her high expectations.  This one was fun, farcical at times, but with a feelgood factor.

DADDY ISSUES

Finding the right sperm donor for a gay couple's pregnanacy can be tricky.  But what if the answer is close at hand?  Maybe you can even keep it in the family...   An unexpected proposition has unexpected consequences, and a moral dimension that's given as much thought as you could expect from a ten minute drama.  A nicely balanced piece.

FIGHTING MISS RIGHT

A first date, and she's sure she's found what she's looking for.  But the other she has bneen bured too often, and she has rules, hurdles to be overcome, before a relationship can move on.  Is there a way to jump those hurdles faster?  She'll do everything she can to find out...  Awkwardness, inventiveness, the minefield of dating, an intrgiuing take on what people will do to find and resist love.

TOP FLIGHT

On a plane to Gdansk two people are brought together into sharing the reasons for their being there.  Escape being one of them, so when the flight is forced to turn back there's reason to be concerned.  But sometimes the solution presents itself, and offers something neither party had thought might happen.  A short play with a twist.  A special mention to Rosie Edards for her hilarious cameo as the stewaress.

THE APPLE INSPECTOR

A farcical black comedy set on a cider farm.  Apples, romance, murder and legal complexities.  A bit daft really, and probably the weakest of the quintet, but a bit of fun to ned the show on.

The Big Singalong, Ross Bandstand, Edinburgh International Festival

 A sold out crowd, a sunny sky and the castle looking down on the event.  The perfect setting for a big choral effort.

With a singing master leading proceedings (taking over from a Radio Forth DJ) we had three community choirs performing a couple of numbers each.  One mixed voices, one women only, one male voice, with one from Edinburgh and two from Glasgow.  All interesting perfromances, but by far the most ineresting was the female voice collective, comprised of women from other nations, often refugees, and songs of liberation and struggle.

Then it was time to give the audience a bit of instrcution and practice in an arrangement of one of Scotland's best loved songs, to be fronted by the singer/songwriter who made it famous.  Getting it right provided some laughs, but it was just about there by the time Dougie MacLean took the stage, joined by a scratch choir to help out.  The song was, of course, Caledonia, and it did sound good.  Another couple of numbers from Dougie, a final rendition of the anthem, and that was that.

A pleasantly gentle and fun way to spend some of a Sunday afternoon.

Homo (sapien), Assembly Roxy Snug, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 A one man coming of age play written by, and starring, Conor O'Dwyer.

Joey is a bad gay.  At least he thinks so, primarily because he's in his early twenties and still hasn't had sex, despite several opportunities.  But maybe life is a bit more complicated than one night stands?  Maybe he just needs to understand himself a bit better.

O'Dwyer gives an energetic performance, with a cast of characterts well delineated, and emotional depth.  There are a lot of laughs, moments of pathos, and a solid reflection of what it's like to gorw up 'different', when you're not too sure who'll accept you as you are.  

Highly recommended, as both entertaining and thought perovoking.

Big Bite-Size Breakfast Menu Two, Pleasance One, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Onwards and upwards for the Bite-Size crew, this year moving to Pleasance One.  Another three 'menus', with differing offers of short, sharp playlets.  A mostly familiar cast (two men, three women) with only one newcomer from previous years.  And the same offerings of strawberries, coffee and croissant before the show begins.  Still a delight.

For Menu 2 the five courses are...

THE THIRD WHEEL

A young couple of a Ferris wheel.  Him annoyed that a third person has been placed in their pod, her puzzled as to why.  He's got it all planned, the most romantic proposal ever.  But plans don't always work out, and that extra person is suddenly an important part of the scenario.  A sharp little comedy commenting on how easy if it is to find yourself with a different vision of your future to that of the person you want to share it with.

FOOD BANK

The only people at a food bank are those providing the service, and those in dire need of it.  But can you be both?  A new helper has turned up, and wants to turn everything into a drama.  Maybe he hasn't got the hang of it?  Or maybe he has...?   Played for laughs, but there is a side ordering of pathos in this one.  We aren't always what we pretend to be...

PROOF

A parcel arrives, the courier takes the photo of proof.  But then you relaise it's the worong hand in the pic...  Farce ensues, the gas man gets roped into the silliness.  Maybe a bit too silly?

BOTTOMLESS

Three old friends get together for pre funeral drinks  - something their dead pal had very much wanted, organised.  |A happy and sad occasion.  And argumentative.  And surprising, very surprising.  But old friendships remain strong - don't they?  A quick rollercoaster ride through pasts and presents.

WHATEVER, THE WEATHER

A US news channel, with an English weather presenter.  He just wants to tell the truth about the weather and what's causing it, while his co-presenters want to keep the sponsors sweet.  Who's going to break down first?  This one isn't the funniest, but it does point at one of the reasons why we still have climsate change deniers... (Also the only one of the five where all five cast memebrs made an appearance.)

Another excellent quintet from the Bite Size crew, always entertaining, and occasionally thought provoking, with scenarios that take the truth and stretch it a little.  Always worth seeing.