COMEDY More George Walsh ti Three flavours of stand-up
‘I know what you're thinking, stand-up comedy in the afternoon - not a good idea is it?’ This is the opening gambit of chirpy comedienne Katie Walsh, and judging on this performance, you'd have to agree with her. Walsh, along with her comedy colleagues John More and Sabrina George, manage to provide three different flavours of sub-standard stand-up in a show pretty slim on laughs. More is competent enough but suffers from some ropey material; George is like a very bad Jo Brand and Walsh is likeable enough in a frothy kind of way, but that doesn’t really cut it in the piranha infested pool of Fringe comedy. (Doug Johnstone)
n More George Walsh (Fringe) Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 275 7, until 27 Aug, 2. 75pm, £7 (£6).
THEATRE
The Dwarfs **
Harold Pinter’s hallucinatory madness
This is perhaps Pinter’s least performed play, and on the evidence of The Mandrake’s efforts you can see why. The action charts a disintegrating relationship between three distant friends, provoked in the main by the spiralling madness of Len, whose hallucinations of the titular dwarves
fligé:
npls spectrum youththeatrecompany
A brilliant new musical re-telling the classic story of Jonah.
Performed by a young cast
and including stunning multimedia effects.
As seen at The Dome! Augustines (Venue 152) August 22 - 26 1.05pm (ends 2.05)
Box Office: 0131 225 65 75
www.npls-spectrum.co.uk
30 THE lIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 17—24 Aug 2000
and burgeoning paranoia break the trio apart.
Steven O'Shea stands out as the hapless central character, swooping convincingly from stilted chat to wide- eyed frenzy, and his fellow performers are more than capable. The problem comes with the near-total lack of tension: Pinter’s typically terse dialogue is rendered free of menace, and the poetry of Len’s lunacy falls flat.
(Jack Mottram)
l The Dwarfs (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 28 Aug, 7. 75pm, {TO/£77 (£9/£70).
THEATRE
Blandiloquence and Flapdoodle *** Double-bill of word play fun
Claire Lynd’s character looks like the love child of Johnny Rotten and Wurzel Gummidge's Aunt Sally. In Blandi/oquence, she is married to an archetypal nutty professor who, as it turns out, is actually a duck; but a physician dressed as a bunny wants her too. Barmy. Written in verse by John McGie, this is a rollicking romp that revels in its own absurdity. The second play, F/apdood/e, is a tricky one. The wordplay is as good as Blandi/oquence, but visually it’s not as effective and frankly, who knows what it's about? The performances in both pieces are slick and funny though, so, if you love words and tomfoolery, these are probably for you. (Viv Franzmann)
I Blandi/oquence and Flapdood/e (Fringe) l/lyria, Bed/am Theatre (Venue 49) 225 9893, until 26 Aug (not Sun) 2. 70pm, £8 (£6).
THEATRE The Wake ****
Comic take on death In this touching comedy, food- obsessed Chloe, a garrulous, oddball teenager, barges in on grieving widow Ellen who is sitting alone in a deserted back room at a wake. After a prickly start, the pair begin to talk about their lives and ruminate on death. Although this brief production (it's only 25 minutes long) does not sound like a whole heap of belly laughs, in parts it's actually very funny. Ellen's anecdotes and Chloe's imaginings make for humorous listening. More matter of fact than morbid, it manages to explore the topic of expiration with warmth and sensitivity. A lunchtime treat. (Dawn Kofie) I The Wake (Fringe) Organic Carrot, Hill Street Theatre (Venue 47) 226 6522, until 28 Aug, 7.75pm, £5 (£4).
THEATRE
White Men With Weapons ****
One-man South African satire Through thirteen different characters including an army chaplain, demonic corporal and psychopathic Rambo figure, White Men With Weapons provides a thought-provoking insight into the South African Defence Force (the army of conscripted white South Africans),
’9’“V.l 1Pm-3pm theatre comedy dance music books
Partners in crime: Val McDermid and Denise Mina
BOOK PREVIEW Crime Round-Up
Writers prove that crime pays well
'No more heroes, anymore', proclaimed The Stranglers. Try telling that to crime writers whose genre requires a central character to keep the story and plot boiling.
As this year's Book Festival crime strain shows, a writer is only worth their salt when they create an iconic investigative figure. Heroes And Heroines (24 Aug) is a look at the motivations behind protagonist culture with Christopher Brookmyre, Ian Rankin and Val McDermid discussing each other’s characters. Elsewhere in the Fesival, various individual events touch on the issues of crime writing.
Poet and critic James Sallis chats about Chester Himes (18 Aug), who can be seen as the first great African/American crime scribe and a major influence on the current holder of that crown, Walter Mosley. There are few more popular British cops as Inspector Morse (thanks largely to John Thaw) and Colin Dexter (21 Aug) will be discussing his creation and perhaps tell us why he is closing the case on Morse's career. The current Godfather of Caledonian crime is Ian Rankin (25 Aug) whose Rebus has finally made it to the small screen in the droopy shape of John Hannah.
One of the main developments in the genre is the proliferation of quality female writers dealing in dastardly doings and Lindsey Davis (20 Aug) and Leslie Forbes (26 Aug) make appearances, while the Scottish leaders Denise Mina and Val McDermid are also here. The pair have separate events with Mina chewing the fat with Ken McClure (19 Aug) and McDermid meeting up with Dorothy Porter (23 Aug) before the deathly duo hook up (23 Aug). (Brian Donaldson)
[a Crime Round-Up (Book) Charlotte Square Gardens, 624 5050, until 28 Aug, various times and prices.
flitting between his various protagonists.
Not for the faint-hearted, this satirical, thought-provoking and amusing production is funny, disquieting and grim. (Dawn Kofie) an White Men With Weapons (Fringe) Greig C oetzee, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 28 Aug (not 22) 2pm, £7.50/f8.50 (£6.50/f7.50).
Brutal, raw and uncompromising, it explores the disorientation felt by these men after the post-Apartheid changes in their country eradicate the cause for which they’ve been fighting. Greig Coetzee, the play’s author and star gives a vigorous performance. He spends a sweaty hour and a half striding around the sparsely furnished stage effortlessly
Greig Coetzee finds the army game's no fun in White Men With Weapons