Theatre review: DugOut Theatre’s Inheritance Blues, Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49), Edinburgh

BEDLAM Theatre is a proper fringe venue – a place where you can hang out, eat delicious cake and bring large mugs of tea into shows predominantly put on and performed by new companies.

DugOut Theatre’s Inheritance Blues

Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49)

Star rating: * * * *

It’s the perfect setting for DugOut Theatre’s upbeat musical comedy, which has gained a large following over the course of the Fringe, having won the International Student Drama Festival’s 2012 Festgoers Choice Award.

With music from “in house” blues covers band The Hot Air Ballues, it tells the stories of three brothers who meet at a wake in Dorset following their father’s death to discuss their inheritance. One’s a cockney wide boy, the other’s a social climber, the third is caught in the middle. Needless to say, they rarely agree on anything – not least the kind of person their father was and who has booked a group of swinging musicians for a post-funeral get-together.

There is a wry self-referential humour running through the devised script – one that allows band members Scisserhands, Kingpin and Champagne to make amusing asides mid-song to anyone they fancy, on or off stage. This is a nice little device that creates the laid-back mood of a live music club within a broad appeal, light-hearted comedy.

Tom Black, Henry Perryment and Will Barwick give the brothers an easy familiarity that leads to some great moments of comedy, while never losing track of their competitive relationship and underlying camaraderie. Band members Ed Smith, Luke Murphy and Harry Williams play some cracking numbers – a “one more drink” song is beautifully choreographed by director George Chilcott, in particular. A saxophone-off involving the boys’ father is another highlight – it’s always thrilling to see one saxophone on stage, but two is a rare treat.

A letter that stays unopened for an unfeasible amount of time is at the centre of events is, though, like the set-up, really just a device for winding up a group of eclectic characters and seeing what happens.

It’s a small story filled with the snappy punchlines of a TV sitcom, and while it might not have any real consequences, it is a lot of fun.

• Until 25 August. Today 10:30pm.