FESTIVAL 8pm—10pm
Going swimmingly: Greg Fleet's Underwater World
COMEDY PREVIEW Greg Fleet's Underwater World
Fleety's been around the block a bit. Havrng amassed enough life experrence to keep him in maternal for qurte some time, the ex-iunkie has decided it's time he went off on a tangent. Combinrng first-hand experrence with an off-krlter fantasy element, this year’s show JUlTlDS
between stand-up and role-play.
'I'm on a real thing at the moment to surprise the audience and take them on an emotional Journey, rather than Just churnrng out the same old stuff,’ he says.
And surprise he does. In Underwater World an old man — not himself, stresses Fleet — livrng on the top floor of a hotel, shoots the breeze with a porter, whrle a decade of dreich days makes drownrng seem rnevrtable.
It’s not as deranged as it sounds, as Fleet explains: 'It’s about JOY, abandonment and letting yourself go — and the further you do drop the guard, the more you risk losing and the more vulnerable you are.‘ (Clarre Prentice)
I Greg Fleet’s Underwater World (Fringe) Greg Fleet, Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 275 7, 8 -30 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£6),
COMEDY PREVIEW
Milton Jones
Seen at Battersea Arts Centre, London, Sat 26 Jul.
Last year's Perner Newcomer Award- Winner boasted the Best Joke To Have Been Told in 1996. He may well have done it again in 1997.
This year’s hour rs a brave effort, With Jones adding life to the seemingly lifeless and finding specks of gold in SUbJQCIS as bland as ten pence coms.
Stranger though, his frequent
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“A comedy act to treasure” The Times
8 Aug — 30 Aug 8pm
ASSEMBLY ROOMS Box Office: 0131 226 2428 Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 5138
70 THE lIST 8—14 Aug 1997
THEATRE PREVIEW Celle-La
For Theatre Cryptic, theatre is about
more than just words. Since its formation it has introduced sculpture, live music and even livelier turns from opera singers into the frame. This mix 'n' match multi-discipline approach has paid substantial dividends, with last year's deconstruction of James Joyce, Parallel Lines scoring such a hit that this year’s Fringe revival will act as a warm-up to world toufing.
Alongside the revival, Cryptic’s company founder, director and creative buzzbomb Cathie Boyd premieres a new show CelIe-La (That Woman), by Quebecois playwright Daniel Danis, whose Stones And Ashes left Traverse audiences weeping a couple of years back. CeIIe-La is equally
moving, telling a three-tiered family tragedy via a series of interweaving
monologues, rich in poetry and passion.
Sound values: Scotland's Theatre Cryptic get musical with Celle-La
'It was the musicality of Daniel’s work that appealed,’ explains Boyd. 'Also. he used to be a sculptor, so there was even more of a rapport.’
Rather than bang out something half-baked and under-rehearsed, Cryptic prefer to develop a single work over a full year. ’Celle-La has developed organically in stages. ‘What we've discovered is that the music is replacing the language, and that there are other ways of telling a story than with
words alone.’ (Neil Cooper)
I Cel/e-La (Fringe) Theatre Cryptic, Traverse Theatre (Venue 15) 228 7404,
9—77Aug, times vary, f 7 0 (f 6).
moments of sheer brilliance are offset by some extremely weak gags which have no place rn his much-celebrated stand-up act. They’re not the type you groan at, Just the type you don’t laugh at.
’You know from the moment you walk on If a character is gorng to work or not,’ Jones says. ’But you can't get out of it eas|ly. It’s not like shovellrng a new line in every now and then. You're stuck wrth it.'
Being the professional he is though - and the very funny comedian — you can bet any problems will have been rroned out by the first week. (Danny Wallace)
I Milton Jones: Joyrider (Fringe) Milton Jones, P/easance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 30 Aug (not 77, 26) 8pm, £8/f7 (£7/E6).
COMEDY PREVIEW Ed Byrne: Psychobabble
Few of us escape the parental clutches unscathed. Adolescence wouldn't be the same wrthout a tinge of neurosis. But Ed Byrne has deeded to cash-in on his, wrthout the US-style famrlial law- suits.
Combining his comedic talents wrth dashes of the cerebral and theatrical, Psychobabb/e sees the 25-year-old Unr drop-out climb on to the psychiatrrst's couch to confess all.
The Irish wrt’s descrrption of a gig as 'lrke takrng a lrne of coke’, goes some way to explaining why, instead of
partying all night like last year, he’s doing a second show, The Act, together with regular appearances at The Gilded Balloon's Late ’N’ Live cabaret. The downside us they all take place wrthin the same four walls.
'It's ironic really, that this year I’m
doing a show about psychosis when I could actually have gone mad by the end of the Festival.’ Worth holding out till the last night for added authenticity, then. (Clarre Prentice) I Ed Byrne: Psychobabb/e (Fringe) Ed Byrne, Gilded Balloon Theatre (Venue 38) 226 2757, 8—30 Aug (not 77, 78, 28) 9pm, £7.50 (£6.50).