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THEATRE REVIEW Rum And Vodka
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Conor McPherson must have great plays lying around like everyone else has loose change. This revival of an early monologue gives us the chance to see if the wonder-kid of lrish theatre. the genius that created This Lime Tree Bower and The Weir. was always that good.
The answer must be yes. Rum And Vodka details in brilliant. relentless precision three days in the life of an unnamed Dubliner as he descends from suburban indolence into a drinking binge.
With echoes of Ulysses, our man crosses the streets of Dublin after getting the sack and struck on the eye with a tin of tuna by his wife. Maria, in Krazy Prices supermarket.
Alexander Dowes performs this with an assured naturalness that turns an unloveable, self-loathing everyman into something, if not likeable. then at least incredibly real and human.
There are neither jokes nor overstated profundities, but it is funny and profound. It‘s like that point at the end of the night when you're telling all and sundry that you really, really love them whilst knowing that you look like an arse. Rum And Vodka is an uncomfortable gem. (Graham Dickson)
5-55; Rum And Vodka (Fringe) Lucid Productions, Theatre Workshop (Venue 20) 226 5425, until3l Aug, 8pm, .6 7 (£5).
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FRIDAY 28 AUGUST, 8pm (Queen’s Hall)
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FREE to List readers.
the Queen’s Hall Box Office.
COMEDY REVIEW Holmes Alone
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i Intriguing hour of quasi-sCIentIlic text analysis. Full marks for experimentation and perkiness; but frankly, Gorman’s obvious gift for straight-down-the-Iine stand-up (omedy Is diluted by the cumbersome structure. Good fun all the same. (Andrew Burnet)
89% Dave Gorman -. Reasons To Be Cheerful (Fringe) Dave Gorman, P/easance (Venue 33) 556 6550, untI/ 37 Aug, 9 30pm,
; [9/[850/[8(f8/[750/f7).
Perhaps there would be less clinical depression around if all the people Currently In therapy signed up for a COurse of James Holmes’ brand of treatment Instead. His audience are encouraged to adopt him as a kind of guru-cum-analyst, ably equipped to help them through then trauma in the wake of a veritable onslaught of celebrity deaths. He’s a sweetie whose daytime TV campness and gentle audience-baiting lends a soft edge to i an Inventive set; and the live onstage exorCIsm of his childhood glam-rock- disco demons has to be seen to be believed (Hannah MCGIlll
55}. Holmes Alone (Fringe) James Holmes, Assembly Rooms (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 5 Sep, 8.55pm, [9 ([8)
E COMEDY REVIEW Rich Hall —The Shame Spiral
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The sell-styled US monkey boy of comedy, lvlr Rich Hall, is down on his Own C0untry. He's down on Clinton and his bad aim (semen-Wise), he’s down on the venue’s sponsor and he's down on companies haying more money than some COuntries. And the front-row guy With the loud rugby shirt gets a hard time fOI distracting Rich from the low cut ladies he'd rather be concentrating on Still, this Is no grumpy Old man. He is still sweet on Scotland, even crooning a ditty to the sexual nature of our town's names. Still funny after all these years, (Brian Donaldson) 53 Rich Hall — The Shame Spiral (Fringe) Ric/I Hall, Observer Assembly (Venue 3) 226 2428, until 30 Aug, 8.30pm, [IO/£9 (f9/f8).
STAR RATINGS
COMEDY REVIEW Dave Gorman - Reasons To Be Cheerful
In his classic song, which reached Number Three In August 1979, Ian Dury Cited sixteen verses’ worth of stuff that kept his pecker up. One drunken night nearly two decades later, Mancunian stand-up Dave Gorman bet two mates a tenner each he could create a show based around
the song and some second-hand slides. ::::* (Laurznavzhi‘. After much obsessive research and *** \Voiili 'st‘t"ll(l
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CREATURES
SAT 29 AUGUST, 8pm (Queen’s Hall)
For each show five pairs of tickets are available
Collect them on the day of the performance at
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27Aug—1OSep 1998 THE ”ST“