Cabaret & Variety review: A Touch Of Mrs Robinson

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Fifty years on, Anne ­Bancroft's portrayal of Mrs Robinson in The Graduate remains the archetypal icon of the glamorously predatory older woman.

Greenside @ Infirmary Street (Venue 236)

***

In this charming, sexy and thoughtful cabaret, Fiona Coffey takes up the leopard-skin mantle – as well as the eyeliner, beehive and cigarette – to imagine the backstory behind the movie’s seductress and explore her impact on Coffey’s own life.

She’s superbly accompanied by Michael Roulston and “Kitch” Kitching in delivering a judiciously crafted set list of period-appropriate songs, including I’m Gonna Destroy That Boy, Step Inside Love and Born To Be Wild.

With imaginative empathy and intellectual curiosity, the show delves behind the cougar stereotype, showing how an intelligent woman of Mrs Robinson’s generation could easily end up bored, frustrated and willing to play with fire just “to say a big fat no to her unfulfilling life”.

Coffey is inspired by the character’s embrace of risk – yet too often there’s a restraint, a caution to her delivery that doesn’t quite do justice to that impulse. (A Kinks/Harry Nilsson medley is a notable exception.)

Slightly fudged moments of audience participation also undercut what remains a smart, sensuous and heartfelt show. Making the case for a misunderstood heroine, Coffey is seductive indeed.

Until 26 August. Today 5:15pm.