Gig review: The Pain Of Desire, Summerhall (Venue 26), Edinburgh

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on 08/08/2012 11:08

IF we must see Fringe shows in student lecture halls – and it appears we must, given the amount of university real estate in use during the Festival – then at least the Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall adds to rather than sucks out the atmosphere, its vertiginous semicircular wooden benches looming over a performance space which, late of an evening, is occupied by the four-piece band Temper Temper, who could, and will, teach you a thing about musical theatre.

The Pain of Desire

Summerhall (Venue 26)

Star rating: * * *

Their show The Pain of Desire celebrates the overwrought chanson tradition but adds a fair hammering of rocky Sturm und Drang. Principally, it is a playful, proudly OTT vehicle for frontwoman Wendy Bevan, a committed drama queen with an elastic contralto that she manipulates for optimum, overbearing theatricality and, at times, minimum comprehension, like Lene Lovich playing Norma Desmond fronting The Bad Seeds.

The music comes in torrential waves, then it’s oh so quiet again and Bevan stands, face tilted upwards, nostrils twitching, brows knitted, eyelids drooping, emotionally spent, until it is time to work herself up into another exhausting frenzy of ham passion. The final crashing crescendo is quite an onslaught, but it’s not over until the slender lady dons her fur coat and is led away by her unsmiling lackey.

• Until 18 August. Today 9:45pm.