Edinburgh Fringe Theatre reviews: Blubber | How to Kill a Chicken | Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride | Man of War: The Secret Life of Nadezhda Durova | Dick. | Tide

Dipping a toe into synchronised swimming inspired Blubber, a graceful, self-reflective piece of performance art from Katie Greenall that leads our latest batch of Fringe theatre reviews. Words by David Pollock, Katie Kirkpatrick, David Hepburn, Josephine Balfour-Oatts and David Pollock

Katie Greenall in Blubber | Claudia Legge

THEATRE

Blubber ★★★★

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 26 August

There’s a frankness and an openness to performance artist and director Katie Greenall’s solo piece Blubber which is disarmingly reassuring. Especially as she tackles a stigma that is little addressed in art and certainly not through those connected to the acting professions, where image and a traditional received concept of what is physically attractive remains overwhelmingly prevalent.

Greenall has a fat body (she uses the word herself, most notably when she defines herself as “pro-fat”), and although this isn’t the first piece of art she’s made about her relationship with her body, she says it will be her last. It was originally meant to be a piece about trying to learn how to do synchronised swimming, she tells her audience, until the unsatisfying reality left her feeling there was much more to say about the reality of her relationship with water.

The lighting onstage is subdued, as if this were a spa experience, and there is water on the stage, both in a tray in its centre and in bags hanging from the roof, which Greenall pierces and allows to slowly drip into large Perspex jugs. Her monologue is a journey, although one which doesn’t quite end as the play does; the delicate balance between self-acceptance and acceptance by society is one which many people grapple with, and will powerfully relate to in her recounting of it.

Along the way Greenall anthropomorphises her own body as a character named Body and describes her own relationship with water, explaining how bone and muscle may sink but fat floats on water, and how she feels at home there as though she were an aquatic creature designed to exist within it. This serenity is illustrated by powerful and graceful dance moves, a beautiful song sequence and a concluding interactive “baptism”, reemphasising a need for human connection. It is an exemplary work on the subject of finding comfort in your own skin. David Pollock

THEATRE

How to Kill a Chicken ★★★

Underbelly, Bristo Square (Venue 302) until 26 August

How to Kill a Chicken makes a stunning first impression. In a tiny, dark sideroom of a venue, a cellist improvises on a stage covered in white feathers. Soon, writer and performer Giulietta Tisminetzky takes to the stage. With her words, she transports us to the sunny coast of Costa Rica, on a birthday trip filled with surfing, waterfalls and margaritas. She’s an enchanting storyteller, and the elegant support of Midori Jaeger on the cello gives the show a distinctive flair.

What begins to unfold is a sensitively told account of sexual violence, in a well-constructed and atmospheric narrative. Tisminetzky slowly introduces themes of control and coercion, making deft references to bullfighting and poultry preparation. The story is fairly straightforward, its eventual conclusion evident from quite early on. A moment of unreliable narration adds some interest, but this angle could have been pushed further to give the show some extra layers and depth.

While it may not be anything brand new, How to Kill a Chicken is a moving performance, made all the more impactful by the way the show donates some of its profits to survivors’ charities and provides support resources. Katie Kirkpatrick

THEATRE

Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride ★★★

theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43) until 23 August

Written and performed by James Nicholas, this is a one-man adaptation of a short story by Charles Dickens – a spooky tale that teases hints of autobiographical detail from one of the more controversial chapters in the author’s life.

A story-within-a-story, we meet a middle-aged author on a train to Lancaster, musing on how to extricate himself from an unhappy marriage and replace his wife with a teenage actress. His fevered plan is to have the entirely sane mother of his children committed to an asylum, something Dickens himself attempted.

He arrives at a hotel where a mysterious old man regales him with the titular tale, about an equally venal man whose attempt to marry a wealthy widow goes awry when she dies. Turning his attentions to the widow’s daughter, he weds and imprisons her before things go even more murderously wrong. Naturally there’s a ghoulish twist in the tale.

Dressed in Victorian garb, Nicholas is word-perfect, performing on a sparse stage inhabited by little more than a scattering of chairs and a suitcase. The distilling of the story into a mere 50 minutes means that it skips along at a fair clip but leaves little room for dread to build, while the constant switching between characters is occasionally confusing. Nonetheless this is still a fun and well assembled ghostly treat. David Hepburn

THEATRE 

Man of War: The Secret Life of Nadezhda Durova ★★★

theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43) until 24 August  

Man of War is highly recommended to lovers and experts of queer and military histories. Told through a vivid blend of physical theatre and chorus, theatre company Acting Coach Scotland charts the life of Russian cavalry soldier and writer, Nadezhda Durova (1783-1866). A daughter born in place of a longed-for son, as an infant she would be thrown from the window of a train carriage by her mother.

Durova grew. This girl that behaved like a boy later turned into a woman that masqueraded as a man, and soon, Durova became a soldier who defied opposition and societal convention, excelling so uniquely that she achieved recognition and military rewards from the Tsar himself. The literal translation of her name is “hope”, and she overcame every obstacle she encountered with supernatural persistence and determination.  

The company of four recounts Durova’s displays of courage on the battlefield, as she braved numerous battles against Napoleonic forces. Lighting and sound amplify scenes of combat, and the performers do well to demonstrate Durova’s transformation, as she is hardened by her military experiences and transcends the strictures of her sex to come fully into the person and patriotic icon she always seemed destined to be. Josephine Balfour-Oatts   

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THEATRE

Dick. ★★

Paradise in the Vault (Venue 29) until 25 August

Made by young London company Next to Nothing Productions, Dick. is well-performed by five young actors whose energy, focus and gravitas when it is required are its main selling points. Yet this tale of a group of 26-year-olds experiencing a collective quarter-life crisis which has serious consequences for one of their number is let down by a script which mistakes cross-talking vagueness and abstraction for profundity. The dialogue is so formal and off-the-page that even their carefree sexual banter at the beginning feels more like a university lecture than flirtation. It’s like a very early draft of something which is meaningful and heartfelt, although the live onstage between-scene costume changes are a nice touch. David Pollock