Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Three stars
There's a slick but laid-back rapport between the overall-clad
four-piece band playing a punky overture at the top of this ménage a
trois of lo-fi mini musicals from the nabokov company and Soho Theatre.
They address the audience as they enter the theatre, setting a casual
tone to what follows as they step into character and costume for each
playlet.
Proceedings open with Jonesy, Tom Wells' tale of a sports mad asthmatic
boy who can't finish a netball match without a brush with death, but
still finds music in his heart. Ella Hickson's A Love Song For The
People of London finds two solitary travellers adrift in the big city
catch each others eye with tragi-comic results, while My Thoughts On
Leaving You is a quick-fire run through a relationship, as boy meets
girl in a nightclub toilet before playing out their everyday urban
melodrama in song.
While the first piece is essentially a fleshed-out monologue, the
following two are old-school rom-coms with a slightly cynical twist
that captures the modern-day dating game with the theatrical equivalent
of an arched eyebrow. All of which makes for sixty-five minutes of some
pretty serious fun.
As the cast of Jack Brown, Liam Gerrard, Iddon Jones and Katie
Elin-Salt swap instruments and roles with the joie de vivre of
children's TV presenters, something slight but irresistibly sweet
emerges in Joe Murphy's production. With all three plays driven by Ed
Gaughan's live score for guitars, keyboards and drums, this taps into a
DIY aesthetic that is a twenty-first century reinvention of fringe
theatre's original shoestring approach rebooted for the age of the
pop-up venue with considerable charm.
The Herald, November 10th 2014
ends
Three stars
There's a slick but laid-back rapport between the overall-clad
four-piece band playing a punky overture at the top of this ménage a
trois of lo-fi mini musicals from the nabokov company and Soho Theatre.
They address the audience as they enter the theatre, setting a casual
tone to what follows as they step into character and costume for each
playlet.
Proceedings open with Jonesy, Tom Wells' tale of a sports mad asthmatic
boy who can't finish a netball match without a brush with death, but
still finds music in his heart. Ella Hickson's A Love Song For The
People of London finds two solitary travellers adrift in the big city
catch each others eye with tragi-comic results, while My Thoughts On
Leaving You is a quick-fire run through a relationship, as boy meets
girl in a nightclub toilet before playing out their everyday urban
melodrama in song.
While the first piece is essentially a fleshed-out monologue, the
following two are old-school rom-coms with a slightly cynical twist
that captures the modern-day dating game with the theatrical equivalent
of an arched eyebrow. All of which makes for sixty-five minutes of some
pretty serious fun.
As the cast of Jack Brown, Liam Gerrard, Iddon Jones and Katie
Elin-Salt swap instruments and roles with the joie de vivre of
children's TV presenters, something slight but irresistibly sweet
emerges in Joe Murphy's production. With all three plays driven by Ed
Gaughan's live score for guitars, keyboards and drums, this taps into a
DIY aesthetic that is a twenty-first century reinvention of fringe
theatre's original shoestring approach rebooted for the age of the
pop-up venue with considerable charm.
The Herald, November 10th 2014
ends
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