Edinburgh Festival Fringe reviews at House of Oz: Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark | Carnival of the Animals by Circa | Geraldine Quinn: Broad | Dolly Diamond’s Bosom Buddies
CHILDREN’S SHOWS
Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark ****
Until 28 August
Carnival of the Animals by Circa ****
Until 28 August
COMEDY
Geraldine Quinn: Broad ***
Until 28 August
CABARET AND VARIETY
Dolly Diamond’s Bosom Buddies **
Run ended
The King’s Hall in Newington has previously been used by Summerhall as their Canada Hub; now it’s the turn of the Aussies to take over and proclaim it the House of Oz. There may be other venues on the Fringe where you might stumble across a select number of Australian artists, but House of Oz handily gathers heaps of them together in one plush, beautiful former church with an Outback bar.
Given their love of order, one can only assume this will please The Listies. Actually, scratch that – The Listies’ love of a list might suggest a desire to organise, but it transpires that this Melbourne kidult comedy duo are partial to pandemonium. You may have known them in a previous life as The List Operators but their natural propensity for slapstick and scatology made children’s comedy an obvious progression/regression.
The duo are clearly familiar to their eager young audience. For the benefit of adult rookies, Richard Higgins is the exasperated straight man keen to get on with the show and Matt Kelly just wants to have fun. As their latest spree Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark begins, the pair are employed as ushers at a production of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedy but the cast are indisposed due to gastric issues. Roping in their stage manager Libby, they resolve to do the show right here. Cue the quickest costume change in showbiz and the inevitable “to pee or not to pee” and “get thee to a lavatory” jokes.
With around fifty minutes left, The Listies need to prune a bit of the text, so Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are cut. Yorick’s skull, however, hangs about for quite a while and Libby bigs up Ophelia’s rather feeble role in ways that even Shakespeare couldn’t imagine. Along the way, there are cameo roles for audience members, water rifles, a dinosaur (because who doesn’t love a dinosaur?) and, yes, a list, this one of Shakespearean insults. Move over Sir Ian – Hamlet’s zombie nun light sabre fight has never been more expertly rendered. “Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare,” proclaims a tiny tot on the way out. See? Educational too.
Acclaimed Brisbane-based circus troupe Circa apply a degree more fidelity to their acrobatic adaptation of The Carnival of the Animals. Snippets of Saint-Saëns’ magical orchestral suite for children are used to soundtrack the movement, along with other musical interludes but the main order of business is to create a succession of their balletic circus routines which evoke the characteristics of the animals.
The seven-strong troupe limber up with some general animalistic impersonation, striking a pose, making a noise, imagining a fight between big cats and graceful gazelles, creating a caterpillar before their gradual transformation into clucking chickens.
Saint-Saëns’ lumbering elephant is re-imagined as a herd of low-slung breakdancing pachyderms, the glistening Aquarium inspires a suitably fluid aerial routine before the peace is disturbed by a shiver of sharks who swim through the crowd with thankfully affectionate intent.
Of course the kangaroos skip, triangulating ropes in one of the most impressive set-pieces. The zebras juggle in groups of two, three, four, the penguins huddle into a pyramid, the fossils are arranged into a walking dinosaur skeleton. Every transition is seamless but also rapid to keep the attention of the teeny tinies down the front and throughout the audience. If in doubt, release some balloons – in Circa’s case, this was just a bonus souvenir following an enchanting display.
A few hours later, House of Oz is transformed into a classy cabaret club for a classy cabaret dame. Geraldine Quinn has made a sort of peace with her saggy boobs (pencil test be damned) and her need for a degree of body upholstery in her middle years. Since childhood, she has always looked up to the indomitable older lady – Miss Hannigan from Annie, Mildred from George and Mildred - and now here she is enjoying her “Quinnaissance”, singing autobiographical songs about auditioning for matronly roles and talking to her dog.
Quinn is big of voice and big of hair with an auburn barnet which might have been considered excessive in Eighties Nashville and a wardrobe of recycled sequins and kaftans. It’s drag chic, baby, but the queens copied it from her and her like.
She is determined, after the time we’ve all had, to bring some positivity to her first cabaret show in four years (and her first Fringe in twelve). Unfortunately, her artistic pre-occupations make that impossible and instead she debuts a subtly satirical song against holistic health “on behalf of all the grumpy people” and a non-seasonal Yuletide protest about male privilege around the manger, with a slight dusting of sleigh bell for that important festive feel.
Her accompanist Cameron Thomas also mans the ivories for Dolly Diamond at her late(ish) night variety show Dolly Diamond’s Bosom Buddies. Diamond channels the easy listening divas and the working men’s club comedians of the Seventies in her role as maternal MC, lavishing praise and encouragements on to her guests, as well as breaking out a few numbers of her own.
The enigmatic Tina Del Twist is a woman of few words and an enormous capacity for consuming red wine. She has a literal fish bowl of the stuff with which to lubricate her all-too-brief renditions of Feeling Good and Nature Boy with backing from her imaginary band. She and Dolly go way back, but only one of them remembers the words to their duet of Sisters.
Of her other guests, drag queen Dean Misdale sports a rock hard beehive and a love of Nineties pop divas while Chinese expat He Huang offers some mildly diverting culture clash comedy, but neither land much of a punch. Instead, Dolly glides in to elevate proceedings with her somewhat lyrically modified versions of Whatever Will Be, Will Be and Aussie disco pop classic Love Is In The Air and the promise of late night drinking for all. Bless this House of Oz and all who reside in her.