list.co.uk/festival Reviews | F E S T I VA L K I D S
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DOWN WITH THE POETRY KING! Fun wordplay with the rhyming rascal ●●●●●
A red velvet gown, glowing gold crown and sparkling sceptre sit to one side of the stage, longing to be worn. Next to them stands Mark Grist, the man who would be king. Can we help bring the two together?
Grist is a poet, rapper, teacher and all-round clever wordsmith. He’s delivered hundreds of shows, gathered millions of views on YouTube – the only thing he’s lacking, is a book publishing deal (not really, but for the purposes of the show, we’ll pretend he is).
To help him in his quest, he needs an agent and is looking for an audience member ripe for the challenge. Along the way, he delivers witty poems and raps about being highly competitive at board games and the fateful night as a 7-year-old he almost poisoned his father.
Grist is a natural performer, with a personality you instantly warm to. Audience involvement is never patronising or humiliating, just a fun chance to play with words. And his ultimate message – that there are no real rules in creative writing and poetry, you should just let your imagination run wild – is to be applauded as much as his performance. (Kelly Apter) n Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 18 Aug, 11.30am, £8–£9 (£6.50–£7.50).
FEAST OF FOOLS Engaging storyteller feeds the imagination ●●●●● Welcome to dinner with storyteller Daniel Serridge, whose in-the-round show is marked out by a circle of paper plates on the floor, with coloured pens in place of cutlery. No actual eating will be going on during our hour-long banquet, but the intention is to let our imaginations feast until we leave the room filled with hunger – or feeling like we might never eat again.
LITTLE TOP Soothing circus for younger babies ●●●●● It seems an ambitious task that early years specialists Starcatchers (along with circus-theatre group SUPERFAN) have set themselves: creating a circus for babies, surely the pickiest group of customers out there. But it also makes sense – circus is made of colour, light, bodies doing extraordinary things, creating beautiful patterns. Babies love these, and there are plenty of all of them in Little Top.
We begin with a choice of two story menus to vote Aaron Sparks deftly juggles mesmerising white
for; it’s close – but not that close – in favour of the 'disgusting' menu over the 'delicious' one. His trio of story courses are sourced from Hungary (he notes the irony), Syria and Japan, and adapted to suit a local palate. The disgusting menu ('sadly democracy means
you don't always get what you want,' he says to the 'delicious'-voting kids, with a nod in the direction of the grown-ups) is delivered to just the right level of gross-out, with some mild audience participation and creativity called upon amid stories of a marauding pork pudding and a raccoon which lives in a kettle.
Throughout, our host is as quick-witted and captivating as any young audience demands. (David Pollock) n Scottish Storytelling Centre, until 18 Aug (not 13, 14), 1.30pm, £8 (£6).
balls; Nat Whittington and Gabrielle Cook are elegant acrobats, gracefully morphing into swaying giraffes or leaping into tall towers. But the show’s limitations are reached early on when we are asked to sit behind a dotted line and prevent our babies from crossing it. The problem is the piece is pitched for 0–18 months, an age range encompassing toddling, and toddling babies are not known to sit still for long. Consequently, the first ten minutes felt for me
like wrestling a python (I enjoyed it a lot more once my 17-month-olds had been removed by their father, but I don’t think that was quite the piece’s intention). However, looking around at the awestruck faces of the pre-walking younger babies, it’s clear Starcatchers is on to something. (Lucy Ribchester) n Pleasance at EICC, until 17 Aug (not 12), 10.30am & 1.30pm, £8 (£7).
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BASIL BRUSH'S FAMILY FUN SHOW Lively show from endearingly rude puppet legend ●●●●●
There are people in their 60s who will remember the upper-crust and endearingly rude puppet persona of Basil Brush, a tweedy country gent fox who has been an on-and-off staple of British children’s television since the 1960s. Even now, although the heights of his own prime-time show are behind him, he still turns up on such disparate and grown-up programmes as The Last Leg.
This year – his 50th in showbusiness, apparently – Basil and his human envoy / helper Mr Martin (Martin Cabble-Reid, aka former Britain’s Got Talent finalist Kevin Cruise) have two shows at the Fringe, one for grown-ups in the evening and the more traditional kids show during the day. This one is ‘Basil’s Greatest Show’, and the thin link to The
Greatest Showman sees Basil cast as Hugh Jackman while Mr Martin is ‘the lady with the beard’; the indignity in these things is always the sidekick’s, and the latter ends up bellowing ‘This is Me’ while under the supposed influence of strong laxatives. The pace is lively, the room more often noisy than not. The
audience is led in sing-a-long versions of contemporary-sounding new songs, for example the insufferably catchy ‘Boom Boom Basil’, which riffs on his catchphrase, and the humour well-pitched to gee up an excited young crowd. There’s just the right knowing edge to satisfy equally thrilled parents (Brexit is only mentioned once, and that’s because Basil’s quest to stop talking about it has failed). Having a puppet character sell a show from behind a desk naturally cuts down the options for things to do – although Mr Martin gleefully helps out here, taking custard pies in the face with the best of them – and if the running time is shorter than the usual Fringe hour, that’s because the photo opportunities with the star of the show at the end are enthusiastically taken up by all ages. (David Pollock) n Underbelly Bristo Square, until 15 Aug, 1pm, £11.50–£12.50 (£10.50–£11.50).
7–14 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 75