8pm—lOpm FESTIVAL
COMEDY REVIEW Sir Bernard Chumley’s Grand Tour
* air it
It doesn't bear thinking about what Matt Lucas does to get into character as Sir Bernard Chumley. Whatever the price, it's worth it. Sir Chumley, actor, raconteur and lecherous luvvie is unforgettable and unforgettany creepy. Cackling plummily and tumbling with his trousers in a disturbingly realistic manner, Chumley guides the audience through a life split between hamming it up on stage and cottaging in public t0ilets. Scarin unhinged, he sends up the worst aspects of the acting profession With a merciless accuracy and if you don’t have sOre sides when you leave then your funny bone should divorce you. (Jonathan Trew)
I Sir Bernard Chum/ey’s Grand Tour (Fringe) Sir Bernard Chum/0y, The Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 6550, until 24 Aug (not 18) 8pm, £8/£8.50 (£7/£7.50).
THEATRE REVIEW Gafland
‘kt
Tragic Hollywood legends are ten a penny. And as you'd expect, Garland is far from a skip up the yellow brick road, as we find the stage-stricken star in her dressing room recounting broken love affairs, spells in rehab and unrelenting pressures from bandwagon hoppers out to make a fast buck. Popping pills and slugging liquor, she's fast losing faith in happy endings. Meditative and obviously heartfelt, Gerry Gowans, however, fails to engage us With a rounded, convmcing portrait of the washed-up heroine. Rather we get a somewhat irritating
Sir Bernard Chunky: scarily unhinged
cliche, that's about as deep as the industry that destroyed her, (Claire Prentice)
I Gar/and (Fringe) Judy With Love, Hill Street Theatre (Venue 4 7) 226 6522, until 30 Aug (not 77)8.10pm, £6 (£4).
DANCE REVIEW
Nukanya Dreaming *‘k *
If the closest you've ever got to Aussie culture is a trip down Ramsey Street, Nukanya Dreaming could be your chance to make amends. A low- budget alternative to the Aborigine spectacular on the International Festival, this modest production offers a show-and-tell guide to 02's much- maligned indigenous Culture through dance, music and song. The dance is patchy, the song near non-existent and the narrator mumbles Portishead-style into the mike. But there are flashes of lucid brilliance that make it worthwhile as the dancers stomp through time- soaked rituals that sing their age and dip painted-up toes in contemporary waters (30, if only for the best kangaroo impressions you’ll ever see. (Ellie Carr)
I Nukanya Dreaming (Fringe) NND Ngarindjeri — Nurangga Dreaming, 5t Bride’s (Venue 62) 346 7405, until 23 Aug (not 77) 9.30pm, £6 (£4).
COMEDY REVIEW
Best Of Scottish
*
There were some misfortunes here from the outset. MC Joe Henan was forced to admit that one of his specIal guests was so special he hadn't shown up. His other guest, David Kaye toiled with some reflections on dogs, cigarettes and sex, all of which formed a single comic narrative. On a night
with a more receptive audience, the material may have worked, but on this night his audience were not sympathetic. Henan returned with a nicely-honed microphone routine, and demonstrated some proficiency in the old wheeze of the comic’s inadequate sex life. Best of Scottish comedy? Let’s hope not. (Steve Cramer)
I Best Of Scottish (Fringe), Gilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2 75 7, until 30 Aug, 8.45pm, £7 (£6).
THEATRE REVIEW The Fire Poet it
Philip Wells as The Fire Poet reads well, but there is little in this blandness to suggest he has the wherewithal to flame.
The vocabulary is repetitive and there is nothing startling in the images or themes. Breasts curve, darknesses are deep, red paint is like blood and poetic cliches such as rainbows and shooting stars recur with depressing regularity.
Four of the poems are about writing poetry itself, which is self-indulgent to say the least. Influences on performance poetry from black culture and popular music seem to have passed him by.
Like rubbing sticks together — you wait a long time and still it doesn’t smoulder. Truly banal. (Stephen Naysmith)
I The Fire Poet (Fringe) Philip Wells, Greyfriars Kirkhouse (Venue 28) 225 3626, until 23 Aug (not 77) 8. 70pm, £4 (£3).
THEATRE REVIEW Bite Me i at *
Piles of dishes in the sink, ’borrowed’ clothes and missing teabags — oh the joys of flat-sharing. Presented here with four flatmates whose priorities are poles apart, we're taken into a surreal wonderland where parties clash, Wires get crossed, blurred life choices are made and you can't help but fear it’ll all end in tears.
Yeah, yeah we've seen, heard and
experienced it all before. But. thankfully, Bite Me puts a fresh spin on an old premise, in the process turning the very notion of the fairy tale upside down. A flimsy slice of fun that doesn't pretend otherwise. (Claire Prentice) I Bite Me (Fringe) Angel Fish Theatre, Greylriars Kirk House (Venue 28) 225 3626, until 30 Aug (not Sun) 8.45pm, £5 (£4).
STAR RATINGS
* i i * it Unmissable
it ir ir * Very ood
it it ‘k Wort seeing
it it Below average
* You've been warned
1996 PERRIER AWARD NOMINEE
“sir; 18-29 Auca GEORGE SQUA ,
VENUE 37
PACIFIC RIM PRESENTS
"musical gag -meister, bonsai Meatloaf, king of popular culture”
AUSTRALIAN HERALD SUN
TH EAT
1996 FESTIVAL CRITICS AWARD WINNER
is—2i Aug l997 THE usrrs