Comedy review: George Ryegold’s God-In-A-Bag, Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 300), Edinburgh

By JAY RICHARDSON
Published on 06/08/2012 16:34

SINCE his breakthrough Fringe of 2009, Toby Williams has been gradually humanising his creation Dr George Ryegold, reining in the graphic descriptions of diseases and bodily functions, deploying his gallows humour more sparingly.

George Ryegold’s God-In-A-Bag

Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 300)

Rating: ***

Fleshing out this tremendous character is now at the stage where we can meet the bad doctor’s colleagues, acquaintances and nemesis, with four actors joining Williams.

A logical step, if Ryegold is to gain the wider following he deserves, God-in-a-Bag often feels like a sitcom pitch, though one still too clinically obscene for its otherwise natural home of Radio 4. That it doesn’t quite succeed shouldn’t deter Williams from trying again, as the chief flaw is under-written dialogue. It doesn’t help that the production’s outstanding scene, when Ryegold delivers a pornographic sex education class to schoolchildren, incorporating some hilariously inappropriate lines, most closely resembles his monologues of years gone by.

Hattie Hayridge is underused as a café owner, but Milo McCabe as scheming, handsome posho Dr Andrew Choad and Dan Mersh as Ryegold’s put-upon nurse flatmate are fine value. Moreover, there’s real potential in the abrasive relationship with headmistress Penny (Lindsay Sharman), attracted to this vainglorious monster in spite of herself.

• Until 27 August