By David Pollock, Suzanne O’Brien, Anahit Behrooz, Rory Ford

Published 13th Aug 2024, 12:55 BST

Son of a Bitch

Summerhall (Venue 26), until 26 August

★★★★

In her debut play, comedian and actor Anna Morris (who may be familiar from small roles in Outnumbered and The Windsors, or from a series of viral online videos she made during lockdown) has hit upon the golden blend of a simple, intriguing premise which is able to be thoroughly explored within the space of an hour’s Fringe show. In one line, her story is – what happens when a mum goes viral for calling her four-year-old son a “little c*nt” as they get off an aeroplane?

Written and performed solo by Morris, with direction by Madelaine Moore, the play cleverly uses these few short seconds as a refracting lens through which a relatable portrait of one experience of modern motherhood can be seen.

We cycle back to the woman’s hard-partying younger years and an abortion when she feels motherhood isn’t right for her, to the feeling that she’s being left behind when all of her friends begin having children, to her struggle to have a child through IVF in her forties with a husband she met on the internet.

Morris convincingly weaves timelines throughout the play, as we witness the fallout from the incident – castigated from afar on women’s chat shows, ostracised at the school gate on her son’s first day, cracks widening in her marriage – in tandem with the fateful plane journey approaching, as the tension in the writing really begins to boil.

Is her husband ultimately help or hindrance? Can the kindness of strangers be trusted? How easy does it remain to love your unaware infant child when their every impulsive action suggests something between disdain and active hatred?

It’s an excellent piece of first-time writing from Morris which really gets to the heart of pompous, context-free viral judgement in the 21st century, motherhood at its absolute zenith of stress and the endurance of parental love.

David Pollock

How a Jellyfish Saved the World

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), until 18 August

★★★

Clyde the jellyfish has lots of friends, but none of them are what he calls a ‘forever friend’, and that’s what he’d really like in life. Sadly, though, Clyde’s tentacles sting, so he can’t touch any of the other creatures of the sea without hurting them.

Until one day he meets a new friend who looks just like a jellyfish and who seems to be immune to his touch. They bond and he gives her a name, Bubbles, but it turns out Clyde’s new pal is actually a floating plastic bag. Can it be that she’s an even more dangerous inhabitant of the ocean than he is?

Jam Jar Theatre’s production for very young children by Emily Susanne Lloyd deserves much kudos for its staging, with a quartet of lively actors bringing to life Callum Read’s pleasant songs and a beautiful array of sustainably-sourced puppets, including crabs worn as hats which pop up from behind the scenery, foam fish and a hermit crab with a detritus-covered bucket on his head.

Trailing coloured plastic-like streamers, Clyde and Bubbles float gracefully through the air, even if Bubbles really does look like a jellyfish; if her nature and the environmental themes at the end become a bit too complex for the little target audience, at least there’s plenty for them to be visually entranced by.

David Pollock

Rik Carranza Presents: Marvel vs DC

Laughing Horse @ The Counting House (Venue 170), until 18 August

★★★

Kudos to enthusiastic comedian Rik Carranza, who manages to corral a roomful of feisty kids into proving who can nerd out the hardest while most of them gleefully and desperately battle to claim ultimate geek knowledge over the rest. In fact, there’s little doubt that one or two of the parents have a stack of Bronze Age comics in the attic and are only too keen to get in on the act.

They’ll get their chance. No doubt mindful of copyright issues with some of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, Carranza doesn’t lean visually on imagery of Robert Downey Jr, Christian Bale and co in his feverishly-paced interactive gameshow to assemble the greatest superhero team in the room.

Instead, his onscreen display uses images from the ‘Big Two’ of American superhero comics, allowing him to pit household names like Batman and Iron Man together, while also slipping in nerdy jokes about unknowns such as Squirrel Girl and Green Arrow.

Taking pairs of young volunteers from the audience to represent each brand by testing themselves in a fastest-finger-first superhero knowledge round or a race to put each character’s costume on, it’s plenty of fun as long as there’s a healthily-sized crowd in and a few brave parents are game enough to take part in Nerf gun target practice or a pool noodle battle with some frenzied pre-teens.

David Pollock

Love's a Beach

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), until 26 August

★★★

This laugh-a-minute satirical comedy show offers a modern take on celebrity life. After winning TV’s biggest reality show, we get an insight into the lives of a young influencer couple as they chase views and followers by doing ridiculous advertisement campaigns for products like adult nappies and random appearances at student events.

James Akka shines as Cyrus, the slightly annoying yet likeable fame-hungry persona, while Iain Ferrier’s Ben is much more natural and finds enjoyment in promoting wildlife causes despite their lack of viral potential. The contrasting priorities they have work to emphasise the wildness that consumes their lives.

Co-written by William Johnston and Katie Sayer, the show is very successful in poking fun at what the modern celebrity will do to stay in the spotlight. It also looks into the pressures that they face when the whole world is ready to scrutinize their every movement and their mistakes.

Scene transitions effectively bring in the intense media world through voiceovers with breaking news headlines and social media responses. The piece does drag a little bit towards the end but should be commended for its inclusion of emotional depth when they could have just run away with the laughter.

Suzanne O'Brien

Seconds to Midnight

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), until 26 Aug

★★

There’s seven hours until the end of the world and best friends Eddy and Jo are forced, finally, to confront years of fraught and entangled friendship with the time they have left. Switching between their current apocalyptic moment and their first encounter – delivered in voiceover – when Eddy came out to Jo, Seconds to Midnight examination of queer friendship is well-intentioned but largely inert, with the play’s framing device providing very little tension or propulsion.

The two-hander is neatly delivered by its leads, but the broader questions it gestures at – the messy boundaries between platonic and romantic love, the strange impossibility of meeting another’s desires and subjectivity – remain frustratingly underexplored.

Anahit Behrooz

Squires

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53), until 24 August

★★

There’s an appealing daftness to this historical workplace sitcom that suggests that — with the lightest of tweaks — it would be suitable for children. This isn’t a slight, as the performers all have a likeable brightness to them that means they’re decent company even when scenes spin their wheels too much and don’t really go anywhere.

There’s a decent structure as it starts with the characters, Mediaeval history’s background artistes, trying to dispose of a body and then flashes back three days prior to the events leading up to this. Most of the gags are as blunt as squires’ plastic swords but the cast are engaging.

Rory Ford

Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: Son of a B**** | How a Jellyfish Saved the World | Rik Carranza

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