LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL PREVIEWS/ REVIEWS FESTIVAL MUSIC
NEW VENUE CHECKPOINT CHARLIE Pop up venue revives the spirit of the Forest Cafe
Many miss the unpretentious vibes of the Forest Café, Edinburgh’s foremost independent arts and social hangout. Unfortunately the charity that owned the FC went bust in 2010 leading to it’s eventual closure and a gaping hole in Edinburgh’s cultural landscape. Now restaurateur Malcolm Innes is taking over, hoping to resurrect the Forest and its freewheeling spirit, with the Bristo Place premises opening its doors as pop up venue Checkpoint Charlie for the duration of the Festival.
Housed in an old Methodist Church the building is full of character. ‘Rather than sanitising and gentrifying this traditional edifice, they have elected to preserve and maintain its majestic decay,’ explains promoter Innes Reekie.
‘Checkpoint Charlie is a dynamic art space, a
midnight multiplex dedicated to exhibiting diverse acts and creating a non-stop party atmosphere through three rooms on two floors,’ adds Gamma Ray Dali (pictured). Famed for her twisted burlesque cabaret club night Confusion is Sex she’s joined by local producer Graeme McKinnis and Toby Motorhead (Black Diamond Express) in curating this multi arts site. Confirmed acts appearing across August include Moscow Madhouse, She Makes War, Sacre Noir, Robert Rotifer, Roy Moller, The Cathode Ray, The Merrylees, Little Buddha and many more. ‘Featuring live music from 9pm, Checkpoint Charlie will bring together acts from Edinburgh and beyond, including cabaret, burlesque, bands, DJs, VJs and comedy. says Dali. ‘Our Fringe Uncut approach provides a unique experience for performers and punters alike.’ (Henry Northmore) ■ Checkpoint Charlie, until 27 Aug, 7pm-5am, free.
TWONKEY’S KINGDOM Absurdist fantasy from a maverick Edinburgh musician. ●●●●●
‘We’ve all taken a bag of ecstasy and tried to book a skiing holiday, haven’t we?’ If you say so, Paul Vickers, renowned Edinburgh musician and maverick, and key-holder to the frankly baffling kingdom of Twonkey (it rhymes with ‘wonky’), who is a small rattling puppet character who’s ‘half dragon, half witch and also an accountant’. Vickers’ solo show is filled with statements like the above, surreal vignettes with a stupefying laugh-out-loud quality, which make little sense on their own and even less when performed together. His show follows the dynamics of a concert, with each of Vickers’ weird songs framed by a series of unconnected fairytales, all dark and esoteric, and betraying a fascination with knicker references that’s straight out of the 70s. Witness the fate of Humpty Dumpty’s orphan children, members of a savage species who live in windmills. Or Vickers’ unfulfilled dream to be a fat little duck who feasts on engine oil until a peri- scope shoots from his brain. Or a short mind-reading session, which establishes that one audience member ‘likes it up against an electricity pylon at 4am in miserable conditions.’
It’s all a bit ramshackle, to be honest, but that largely works when Vickers’ studiedly nonplussed perfor- mance is taken into account. He has the down at heel air of your typical toiling-in-obscurity underground musician and a manner which suggests Harry Hill turning up half an hour late for work with a raging hango- ver. When items from his ‘set’ – a windmill, a ship’s wheel and an assortment of hand puppets on the table alongside him – tumble onto the floor to be retrieved by an audience member, it’s almost as if he’d planned such mishaps, so in keeping were they with the tumbledown aesthetic he only just managed to muster into a mostly engaging whole. (Paul Little) Alternative Fringe @ The Hive, until Sun 26 Aug (not 7, 21, 22), 3pm, free, ticketed.
9–16 Aug 2012 THE LIST 69