Edinburgh Fringe Theatre reviews: Hairy B*stard | Bad Immigrant | Good for You | Wired for Connection + more
In our critics’ latest Fringe theatre round-up, a five-star solo show about women’s reproductive healthcare proves hilarious and heartbreaking, but a bare-bones solo version of King Lear shows that nothing can come of nothing
Hairy B*stard ★★★★★
Haldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall (Venue 53) until 23 August
Girls just want basic reproductive health care — that’s the message at the heart of Molly Farquhar’s hilarious and heartbreaking semi-autobiographical solo show. As Magenta, a frilly fuchsia-dress-wearing Liverpudlian, Farquhar exudes the self-deprecating, down-to-earth charm of the slightly tipsy stranger you bond with in the women’s toilets on a night out.
The audience are on her side immediately, laughing along (and loudly!) as she overshares about her sex life, as well as her struggles with the pink tax, the pill, and its side effects — namely excessive hair growth. There’s no reticence when it comes to audience interaction either: participants willingly assist in her pre-date beauty rituals and take to the stage to become the objects of her affection. “Don’t fall off, I haven’t got PLI,” she quips — one of her many entertaining and irreverent asides.
Things get slightly more educational as the show rolls on, with Farquhar sharing facts about PCOS — polycystic ovaries syndrome, a common yet rarely spoken about condition affecting 1 in 8 women in the UK — enlisting the help of a plushy uterus to explain the science behind it in a playful yet informative way. Honestly, this girl deserves her own public health TV show. At the very least, she could teach teachers a thing or two about how to make sex education engaging for teenagers.
It’s not all fun and games, however, as Farquhar deftly flips the script to reveal the personal struggles that informed the making of her show. There’s not a dry eye in the house as she shares video footage of some of her darkest moments, even struggling to hold back the emotions herself as they resurface from reliving them.
Farquhar’s not just a powerhouse performer — she’s one with a cause. While PCOS is her focus, any woman can surely identify with the feelings of alienation and the experiences of dismissive doctors she shares in this profoundly important and cathartic show. The fact she processes her pain while sporting a pink beard, hoisting an inflatable razor above her head, and breaking into a Lizzo-style dance routine while singing “If I had a dick, would it be different?” — that’s just iconic.
EMILY MAY
Bad Immigrant ★★★☆☆
Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17) until 24 August
She comes in like one of those silent disco walking tour guides that you see around Edinburgh, dressed in pink Lycra, sparkles, a Beyonce cowboy hat and Sue Pollard glasses – only she’s also on roller-skates, a key component that could be referenced in the show’s title. Indeed, she’s not a ‘bad immigrant’ at all, she explains; she’s Jennifer Irons, who’s from Canada, who’s white, unlike one of the ‘bad’ ones that her neighbour might be thinking of when she voted Brexit.
The show’s an unusual hotchpotch of things: there’s Jennifer deciding to become an elite roller-skating champion to get a Visa, but who isn’t sufficiently committed to come anywhere close. Then there’s the roller-skating community which is portrayed as inclusive in a way that politics often isn’t, but perhaps that’s because its members have less to disagree about.
While Jennifer’s episodic escapades are amusing they, like her skating, can feel like they’re going around in circles, with attempts to get the audience involved not really adding anything apart from uncomfortable seat shifting. A lightly entertaining, but fragmented, piece about ‘bad immigrants’ that Jennifer seems to have little to do with, it’s ultimately a story about her, with a few speeches about what’s wrong with the world, before the skates are back, the glitterball’s turning and this boisterous Canadian is on her feet again.
SALLY STOTT
Good for You ★★★☆☆
theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) until 23 August
Presented by the Something’s Afoot Theatre Collective as part of the New Celts programme at theSpace on the Mile, all-female three-hander Good for You is a workplace drama by playwright Emery Schaffer, which cleverly teases apart not just the threads of experience which bind women together in a high-powered office environment, but also the pressures which can create competition between them and fracture relationships.
Jeanie (Fiona Hourston) has split with her husband Michael, whose inter-office affair has caused a scandal and led to his departure from the law firm where they both work. This has left a void in a team working on a high-profile case, and Jeanie hopes that, as the wronged party, she’ll be the first one considered to take it over. Yet her colleagues are also in contention; young, ambitious, affirmation-reciting Summer (Natalie Beller) and the more experienced and practical Zara (Netaniah Faison-Osbourne).
Director Becca Donley draws good performances out of all three of her actors, especially as each takes turns to sit behind the big desk doubling as boss Alan, who’s deaf and blind to his own patronising sexism. These switches of character are cleverly done, in a production which is as smart, professional and complex as its trio of lead characters.
DAVID POLLOCK
Wired for Connection ★★☆☆☆
Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 23 August
In the world of online dating, 22-year-old Ontarian Athena has found a new way of meeting people – the futuristic app SoulFinder, which finds you the person of your dreams and sucks you into a virtual reality world where you can also experience your fantasy date. Except this world is male-centric, and when she finds a guy she likes she ends up on a baseball field or on the arm of a James Bond-type spy. Meanwhile offline, her friend Hera tries to give her dating advice while Athena questions whether it’s a man she even wants. Presented by Yuffa Fringe of Toronto’s York University, this three-hander has all the rawness of student theatre, but the acting is spirited and the situations are relatable.
DAVID POLLOCK
Kafka for Beginners ★★☆☆☆
Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 41) until 24 August
An impassioned plea for freedom from authoritarianism and love over oppression is at the centre of Julian Henry Lowenfeld’s confrontational, at times arresting, at times didactic three-hander, which uses Kafka and others as a springboard for a snapshot in the dark, through the torturous strobe lights, of a relationship between a prisoner, his guard and a disembodied authoritarian controller.
The piece evokes the feeling of being held hostage well, both as a show and during an impromptu Q&A at the end. The writing becomes increasingly driven by its hypothesis, leaving little time for characterisation in the second half. “Let’s complete our course in Kafka – and be free”. Indeed!
SALLY STOTT
King Lear ★☆☆☆☆
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)Until 24 August
Even in its original form, King Lear can be a bum-aching watch. Pip Utton’s bare-bones, one-man adaptation streamlines it down to a brisk 45 minutes. What remains is a skeletal outline of Shakespeare’s play, recognisable, but missing the flesh and, more crucially, the heart.
Lear's tormented inner world is signposted through clumsy adaptation, meaning the psychological crescendos, Lear’s arrogance, rage, and eventual grief all fall flat. There are just enough familiar quotations sprinkled in to placate the purists, but you’ll struggle to follow along if you don't know the play.
Utton’s performance is hit and miss, stumbling around in a maddened daze. There isn't much anyone could achieve with this stodgy adaptation.
ALEXANDER COHEN
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