FESTIVAL 8pm—lOpm
COMEDY REVIEW Dylan Moran — Gurgling For
Money
Seen at Battersea Arts Centre, London, Sun 27 Jul. at tar *
It’s an excellent show. Dylan Moran was last year's deserving Perrier Award- winner (hotly tipped by The List before the Festival even began, by the way) and the ambling, shambling surrealist whose laid-hack, see-If-l—care delivery marked him out as something special on the comedy cIICuIt. Oh, and like we say, It is an excellent show.
Discussing what accents really seem to say about people, new terms for girlfriends (he finally settles for 'the person ! hang around with most') and what posh people talk about at cocktail parties, Moran’s usual blend of can’t—be-arsed comedy Is alive and quping In l997. Ireland's favourite comic seem to be at a high point in his career.
Forgive his on—stage lazmess. The material never lacks quality, and Moran’s flights of fancy are always alarmingly charming. A thoroughly recommended show, through and through. (Danny Wallace)
I Dylan Moran — Gurg/ing For Money (Fringe) Dylan Moran, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 24 Aug, 9.30pm, {8.50/[8 (£7.50/f7). Preview show, 7Aug, 9.30pm, £4 50.
"FULL OF SURPRISES. LIFE AND ART”
led Hughes
Trallblazing new talent Philip Wells incinerates imaginations with inspired dramatic entertainment, featuring rhyme and
THEATRE PREVIEW The Tragedy Of Man
Theatrically at least, the Iionrsation of all things East European in recent years hasn’t always been for the right reasons. Laszlo Magacs, artistic director of Hungary’s Merlin international Theatre, is more than aware of this. Appointed in 1992, one of his first moves as director was to make Merlin the first Hungarian company to perform rnarnly In English.
Merlin will provide the bulk of the Hungarian Overtures season taking place at various venues this Fringe. As well as jazz and percussion, the meat in the goulash will be provided by a trio of classic Hungarian plays. Both The Quest and Wounded Women will be performed In English by Hungarian actors.
The third, The Tragedy Of Man, has gone one further, enlisting the services of John Carnegie, former director of Scottish touring company Winged Horse, to marshal an all-Scottish cast. Among the actors Is Jimmy Chisholm, erstwhile star of Scottish Television soap High Road.
STAR RATINGS * t t w t Unmissable t t t it Very ood * it 1: Wort seeing It 1: Below average it You've been warned
" A, TRUE BARD OF VISION“
Piccadilly Poets
rhythm, performance drama, nonsense, power, tenderness and vision.
Tickets £4
Edinburgi Fringe VENUE 28 - GREYFRIARS KIRK HOUSE August 11th - 23rd (NOT 17th) 1997 8.10pm
74 THE LIST 8~14 Aug 1997
Jason Freeman: fresh-faced. friendly and balancing on one arm
'I started to mix the casts,’ Magacs explains, ’because I believe an international cast can give the plays a different perspective, because of different social and cultural backgrounds. It helps me a lot also, because I'm forced to look at classic Hungarian plays through different eyes.’ (Neil Cooper)
I The Tragedy Of Man (Fringe) Hungarian Overtures/Mer/in International Theatre, The Famous Grouse House (Venue 34) 220 5606, 9—23 Aug (not Suns) 8.30pm, £8 (f 6).
COMEDY PREVIEW The Angie Le Mar Show
After five years mopping up other people’s domestic debris, Angie Le Mar is perfectly capable of handling herself in the bloke-heavy stand-up world.
The feisty former social worker explains: 'I saw a lot of horrible things in that job which I thought needed to be brought out, but I wanted to do comedy, so they had to be married somehow.’
And that's exactly what the south Londoner does in her first-ever full- length solo performance. Combining stand-up with Rikki Lake-style confessional, Le Mar injects humour into the serious issues facing two women in denial.
The first Is a victim of domestic violence, the second a black actress who wrongly blames her long-term unemployment on racial prejudice.
‘It sounds heavy but us coloured with humour,’ she says. 'Obviously it brings out women’s Issues but it’s not a ’womansy' piece pitting men against women.’ Real girl power In action. (Claire Prentice)
I The Angie Le Mar Show (Fringe) Angie Le Mar, Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2757, 8-30 Aug (not if, 78, 28) 9.30pm, £7.50 (£6.50).
COMEDY PREVIEW
Parsons And Naylor Seen at Battersea Arts Centre, London, Wed 30 Jul.
Remember those two kids In your class at school who used to annoy teacher by pissing about and making everyone laugh? Well they’ve grown up (a bit), and they're called Parsons And Naylor — and now people pay to go and see them piss about.
Playing pop songs on Fisher Price
instruments, turning the lights off and pretending their torches are light- sabres, having conversations made up of slogans from TV adverts: these are the ingredients Henry Naylor and Andy Parsons have turned into sell-out Fringe shows for the last three years.
Naylor (tall, plays Bough in the Rowan Atkinson Barclaycard ads) describes the act as 'two lads mucking about’. Parsons (short, calls himself ’the mate of the bloke who plays Bough‘) explains their devotion to the old-fashioned d0uble-act sketch by saying: 'Well, you've got a mate up there with you!’
Obviously, it’s a lot of fun to have a water-pistol shoot-out on stage, but the danger, says Naylor Is: ’enjoying yourself more than the audience do’. Little danger there, the audience love it. (Ed Grenby)
I Parsons And Nay/or — The Merry Onions Of Dorking (Fringe) Parsons And Naylor, Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 8—30 Aug (not If, 28) 9.20pm, £8. 50/f7. 50 (£7. 50/f6. 50). Preview show, 7Aug, 9.20pm, [4.
COMEDY PREVIEW
Jason Freeman
Seen at Battersea Arts Centre, London, Fri 18 Jul.
Jason Freeman’s show is a fantastically friendly affair, and as he Introduces you to various characters from his man-In- a—pub-style life, you can't help feeling you’ve met him before.
He’s like the bloke you meet In a club, or on a boozy bus ride home; the type of guy with whom you can spend drunken hours debating which pasta would Win In a fight.
It’s a charming world, one which batters at your defences and
forces a smile to your face for pretty much the whole show. ’I'm looking forward to being able to have an hour all to myself,’ he says, 'I want to really examine things.’
Whether ’examine’ Is the right word for his act or not is debatable, but his mother’s cooking certainly comes under close scrutiny. Much of the material is top class, wrth Freeman proving himself an assured and profesSIonal stand-up in only his first solo show. (Danny Wallace)
I Jason Freeman (Fringe) Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, 63—30 Aug (not 12, 26) 9pm, £8.50/[8 (£7.50/f7). Preview show, 7 Aug, 9pm, £4.