135 Reviews for the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (In order from most enjoyable to least)

Welcome to the 2012 version of my Fringe reviews. Since I tailored much of my schedule to that of my friend Tim’s, and my wife’s requests, I will not be seeing as many plays this year. You can see my schedule here. You can find out about me, and my extended thoughts about reviewing at the bottom of this page. I think that the most useful aspect for my readers is the rankings. I base the rankings on my enjoyment of the show, so they may not reflect the quality of the script and/or acting. I prefer plays to comedy acts, but work in a little of the latter for diversity. I have discovered that I have a penchant for true stories. The comments are usually only three sentences long because I have little time between shows, and, after all, I am here for the shows. You can also see my 175 reviews for 2011 Fringe, 200 reviews for 2010 Fringe, 177 reviews for 2009 Fringe, 153 reviews for 2008 Fringe, 162 reviews for 2006 Fringe, and 151 reviews for 2005 Fringe. I always enjoy chatting with both audience members and dramatic artists. If you wish to contact me, send e-mail to Sean Davis.

You will find an exceptional number of five and four star shows this year. The reason for this is that Tim is quite knowledgeable about the theater scene in the UK, and made sure that his 50 plays were the best he could select from the offerings.

You can change the sorting column of the table below by first clicking anywhere in its header. Each succeeding click in the header sorts the table by the column clicked. Succeeding clicks of a column will reverse the previous sort order. I have now added a Date column so that returning viewers can sort by it to see my most recent reviews.

Rank	Title and Review	Venue	Times	Date
1.	Educating Rita (*****) A besotted English Literature professor reluctantly takes on a hairdresser who wishes to change her life through open university. The play derives its power not from the expected blossoming of the student, but instead from his and our fear that such change will replace her honest insight with academic rote arguments. Both actors are superb as he think he sees a tragedy unfold, and she learns of the pitfalls of her academic success.	Assembly George Square	17:40 – 19:10	6
2.	Mephisto Waltz (*****) As best as I can guess, in this long dance, Mephisto is repeatedly reborn, controlled for a short time by four monks, and then breaks his bonds to revel in nature. The power of his performance is just amazing. Whether writhing in slop, recoiling from steel drums, or crushing his ice heart, there are images here that I will never forget.	Assembly Roxy	20:00 – 21:20	25
3.	Othello - The Remix (*****) Four male rapper/dancers and a DJ are surprisingly faithful to Shakespeare's plot when they update it to a famous rapper and his crew. The show had clever lyrics, diverse dance routines, and music that kept my foot tapping. Desdemona's recorded ethereal singing lent a sense of purity to the invisible wife.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:55 – 15:10	27
4.	The Sewing Machine (*****) In post-apartheid South Africa, a retired woman tells of her life growing on a ranch, and dealing with a stubborn, conservative husband. Each anecdote is bittersweet, and touch upon everything from an adopted baby baboon to a ostracized son suffering from AIDs. This quiet performance had both of my companions in tears as we heard of the love between her and her favorite son, and the intransigence of her husband.	Assembly George Square	14:40 – 15:40	26
5.	Hand Over Fist (*****) A woman repeatedly remembers the first time she met a man with the scene morphing into other memories each time. This has a series of clever, powerful perversions of memories that are disjoint yet related. As we return to the opening scene it becomes it now is layered with heartbreaking poignancy.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:55 – 14:50	21
6.	Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut (*****) This is third time I saw this homage that is a remarkable mix of reverent recital and play-within-a-play antics. I’ve seen Casablanca countless times, and I was amazed how the cast of three would play every touching scene straight, but then add every sort of high jinx to the other scenes. I should warn the uninitiated that many of their funny touches, such as air freshener sprayed all over the set to simulate fog in the airport scene, will make little sense to you.	Gilded Balloon Teviot	17:15 – 18:15	26
7.	And No More Shall We Part (*****) A husband begrudgingly agrees to help his ailing wife commit suicide. As the play progresses through her final day, we see flashbacks of their arguments about her decision, with his heartfelt disagreement often bringing tears to my eyes. I will never forget the simple scene of him lying exiled outside her bedroom door as she lays poisoned inside with his hand raised in toward that door in obedient agony.	Traverse	10:00 – 11:20	14
8.	Mies Julie (*****) Set in post-apartheid South Africa, this adaptation of Strindberg's play has Julie the daughter of the master of the ranch, and her lover a Black farm laborer with whom she has grown up. Race, physical power, economics, love, social status, and lust combine in a volatile mix that still cannot escape their plight. While he is frustrated but realistic, she suffers more because all of her dreams are dashed in one night.	Assembly Hall	14:00 – 15:30	24
9.	Wojtek the Bear (*****) Based on the true story of a bear cub that was adopted by a Polish regiment in World War II and later exhibited in Edinburgh Zoo, this two-man show focuses on the bond between the bear and the corporal who becomes his adopted mother. While often using the mannerisms of a bear, the actor has no bear costume or make-up, and speaks of love and loyalty with the purity of nature. A violinist provides the perfect soundtrack for the joys of their playing, the privations of war, and the sorrow of their parting.	Hill Street Theater	16:30 – 17:45	17
10.	Thin Ice (*****) On an expedition to Greenland in 1939, a geographer attempts to disprove global warming, while his anthropologist assistant researches the natives. Beside the two research topics, the play has a love triangle, a mysterious death, and World War II intelligence gathering integrated into a richly textured whole. The revelations at the end addressed the mysteries and secret motivations in a most satisfying way.	Pleasance Courtyard	11:45 – 13:15	11
11.	A Soldier’s Song (*****) Ken Lukowiak tells of his experiences as a soldier during the Falklands war with the full range of emotionally charged events that such a war can engender. Ken seemingly hides nothing as he speaks of his fears, dismay, stupidity, longings, admiration, and countless other complex feelings. Among the many memorable events is that of him dragging an annoyingly noisy injured Argentine soldier from a still mortared battlefield, and then kicking him to show his buddies that he was not going soft.	Assembly Roxy	17:05 – 18:10	7
12.	Love Letters to the Public Transport System by Molly Taylor (*****) Molly weaves three tales of how events on trains and buses change three people's lives. This is an assured performance, with every nuance and word perfect.	The Assembly Rooms	18:15 – 19:15	24
13.	Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act by Athol Fugard (*****) During apartheid, a single White librarian has an illegal affair with a married Black school principal. Though the racial implications are raison d'être for this play, the social complications of the affair really drive the story. Because the two lovers are nude from the beginning of the play, their cultural roles are obscured, and I was drawn to think of them as simply man and woman.	Assembly Hall	12:15 – 13:30	27
14.	Camille O’Sullivan: Changeling (*****) The Irish singer again provided me a wonderful night of entertainment. Her formula of consistent crescendos and “let’s have a good time” feeling always rouses my spirits. Like Edith Piaf, she seems to be always singing from her soul. When I met her afterwards, she left little doubt that she does. I am sorry for those who missed it, but the show ended the 7^th.	The Assembly Rooms	22:25 – 23:55	7
15.	"Letter of Last Resort" and "Good with People" (*****) In "Letter ...", on her first night in office the Prime Minister must determine what a submarine with nuclear missiles must do if the government of Britain has been eliminated in a surprise nuclear attack. As a bureaucrat made cogent arguments for each position, and she tried to put herself in the position of the sub captain, I was more intellectually engaged than for any other play at the Fringe. "Good ..." has the mother dealing with the return of a now nice fellow, who once unmercifully bullied her dead son. Their circumscribed verbal dance caught my ear, and the simple dropping of props behind their raised platform set contributed to the emotional pointedness of the situation.	Traverse Theatre	19:30 – 20:50	23
16.	The Idiot at the Wall (*****) In 1919, while a London researcher and his brother’s girlfriend visit the woman’s remote Hebridean island home , he becomes enamored with its people, particularly her sister. Like the folklorist I admired the clarity of the locals, and his own pure spirit warmed my heart. Combine these with Gaelic songs, fine acting, and a love story, and you have a most satisfying play.	Bedlam Theatre	15:25 – 16:35	8
17.	Sex Ed: The Musical (*****) Five girls and a guy cover all of the topics of a Sex Ed class in a bawdy, but surprisingly informative way. During the show, each of the four female teachers has her own sexual life evolve, interspersed with lecture/songs and excerpts from the courtship and sexual adventures of a pair of teens. I admire the non-judgmental thoroughness of the show, and how nicely it addressed the issue of lovers with different sexual desires.	theSpace@Surgeons Hall	18:30 – 19:45	18
18.	Bad Musical (*****) This play is ostensibly about a man who leaves a small town and somehow soon becomes the prime minister who then gives everybody everything they want until the country crashes to the ground. Of course, that horrible plot is just a flimsy excuse for a well-conceived display of incompetence in all spheres of stagecraft. Though the show is riddled with a lack of synchronicity, technical snafus, and missed lines, when the play has a strong song the cast and crew demonstrate their true excellence.	Gilded Balloon Teviot	17:00 – 18:00	18
19.	A Clockwork Orange (*****) Based on Burgess' novel, in a dystopic future, a young man, Alex, treats his own violence and rape as performance art, but a series of betrayals leads him to accept an experimental treatment that will make him physically ill when he thinks violent thoughts. Though the show is populated with many characters from the movie, it is the great performance of the ripped and charismatic Alex that strengthens the story from grizzly beginning to sly end. I was pleasantly surprised how well they used dance to convey the gore of the movie.	Pleasance Courtyard	15:40 – 17:00	23
20.	An Evening with Dementia (*****) An old man who sits in a convalescent chair knows he has dementia, and talks to the audience about his techniques for dealing with his visitors and the staff. The actor had all the proper mannerisms, and the script has a perfectly plausible blend of rational thought interspersed with lapses of memory. A good example is his conscious choice to use “Hello mate” when greeting any man, even when he thinks he knows their name, so he can avoid using the wrong name.	theSpace on the Mile	16:05 – 16:55	22
21.	Dugout Theater’s Inheritance Blues (*****) As a blues trio plays in the background of a bar after the wake of their father, three disparate brothers recall their father’s life differently. As the evening progresses, the band members join the brothers, and the dreams of all become entwined. The initial blues song starts the show off right, and the sure performances keep things moving along at a cool pace.	Bedlam Theatre	22:30 – 23:30	8
22.	Molly Wobbly’s Tit Factory (*****) The lives three couples in the boring, moribund town of Little Happening, USA, suddenly change when a stranger buys the long vacant church. The show combines potions of desire, an arch green-haired makeover specialist, and a batch of fun songs that I could actually understand to create an only slightly rude good old time. They pulled off a nice plot trick to address the problem of a gay man married to a pining woman.	The Assembly Rooms	16:45 – 18:15	13
23.	The Lonely One (*****) In a small southern American town in the 1920’s, two women venture to the movies while the strangler of two women is still on the loose. Whether it be a simple soda shop visit, watching a Charlie Chaplin film, or a supposedly reassuring encounter with a policeman the atmosphere of suspense is always building in some way. The initial use of four small Edwardian houses that opened to reveal shadow puppets playing baseball and sitting on their porches worked beautifully to establish the feel of the rural town.	Underbelly Cowgate	18:50 – 19:50	13
24.	The Trench (*****) In World War I, after a cave-in a miner digging a tunnel toward German trenches must perform three tasks to escape to satisfy a monster. This play makes great use of recorded shadow puppetry showing the tunneling by both sides as well as large stick puppet monsters, with the muffled song lyrics being its only drawback. Though this has a fantastical element that is a touchstone of Les Enfants Terribles, unlike their previous macabre music hall productions, this has a more realistic hero for whom I really cared.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:10 – 14:10	19
25.	Leather (*****) The girlfriend of a small-time crook is upset with him because he and his brazen partner’s recent heist of a truckload of leather sofas did not net any cash for her cocaine habit, while at the same time the crime boss who owned the sofas is having his right-hand man tracking the pair down. Whether it is the board game between the dysfunctional lovers, or the soliloquy on people’s needs by the crime boss, every aspect of this violent tale has depth and is well acted. Nuances, such as the boss reluctantly surrendering his wallet to his tracker/aide, add a wonderful complexity to the story.	C Nova	22:25 – 23:20	9
26.	The Fantasist (*****) In her room in a mental care facility, an artist spends most of her time contending with her bipolar hallucinations that foster her creativity and self-doubt. Mania is beautifully portrayed as she succumbs to the huge stick puppet of her evil creative mentor/lover dressed in a grey coat from her closet, and, though shorter in duration, her depression finds it source in a stick puppet crone that warns her of manic side but debases her. A lively foot tall homunculus she had created serves the play well for lighter, comedic interlude. Only the very last 30 seconds of the play detracts from the authenticity of the show.	Underbelly Bristo Square	12:25 – 13:25	10
27.	Out of the Blue (*****) The large Oxford men’s a cappella group is back again with their great arrangements and fun choreography. This show seemed to have better choreography and fewer new tunes than last year’s show. As with last year, I think that this venue is a little too large for their volume, with the weaker solos becoming inaudible even with the addition of central microphone. (Aug 23)	Assembly George Square	14:00 – 14:50	20
28.	Adam Hills: Mess Around (*****) The Australian comedian again uses interviews with the audience as his source for his show. I continue to be amazed at how he can find humor without embarrassing or belittling the people. For this show, he discovered a man from a previous year that looked like a retired James Bond, but then later found a young man in a flashy vest that he thought suited the title, had him pose with a mother and daughter, and later read tweets for a proposed movie title of the picture.	Assembly Hall	19:40 – 20:40	15
29.	As of 1:52pm GMT on Friday, April 27, 2012, This Show Has No Title (*****) Daniel Kitson presents a play about writing this play with an American woman. While Kitson acknowledges that the task is egotistical and fraught with narcissist pitfalls, his interactions with his collaborator seem to keep him (and the play) in line. As a lecturer who teaches computer programming recursion (a subroutine that calls itself), I loved the recursive cleverness of this script such as the self-aware comment about having a running gag to please the simpler people in the audience and then continuing to have a running gag of saying “I’ve had a fall.”	Traverse Theater	15:00 – 16:20	12
30.	The Rape of Lucrece (*****) Accompanied by her pianist Feargal Murray, Camille O'Sullivan adapted Shakespeare's poem to a combination of spoken word and song. His subtle playing provided a perfect soundtrack for the spoken sections, and complemented both her soulful ballads, and her emphatic musical interpretations of Tarquinius' lust and violent act. As with her musical concerts, Camille was a consummate entertainer, and seemed to give every emotional ounce to her performance, and the audience responded by giving her an extended standing ovation.	Royal Lyceum Theatre	21:00 – 22:20	26
31.	Peter Straker’s Brel (*****) With a few short videos of the Jacque Brel as intermissions, Straker presents a wide variety of songs from the Belgian singer/songwriter. The show has the style of a classy entertainer with a fine trio behind him and the shedding of his three piece suit as the songs warrant. He clearly loves the songs, and uses his experience to craft each to best present its feelings.	Assembly Hall	18:00 – 19:00	15
32.	Proof (****) After her famous, but long demented mathematician father dies a 25-year old woman must contend with a visit from her overbearing sister, and mathematics graduate student interested in her father’s papers. As a lecturer in Computer Science, the occasional arguments over proofs and numbers play certainly resonated with me, but it was the flashbacks to her conversations with her father that touched me deeply. Her complex interactions with her peer also worked well, with only the one-dimensional sister preventing this from being a top notch play.	Pleasance Courtyard	14:00 – 15:20	10
33.	The Two Worlds of Charlie F (****) Led by a soldier with an amputated lower leg, more than a dozen disabled veterans injured in Afghanistan describe their experiences in the battlefield, during rehabilitating, and returning to their families. The musical numbers went surprisingly well, and whether in a wheelchair or wearing a prosthesis the leader was a charming guide.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:45 – 15:15	11
34.	It’s Not Easy Being Yellow (****) Ria Lina sings ditties and uses stand-up comedy that focuses on the effects of having a German father and a Filipino mother that make her look Asian but sound American. Whether talking about the problem of being seen as a kidnapper of her own blue-eyed blond daughter, or singing about recessive genes, all of her work is clever. Her voice is so good that I wish she would do a show where she sings the blues.	The Voodoo Rooms	19:00 – 20:00	21
35.	Richard Herring: Talking Cock – The Second Coming (****) Relying heavily on his own website survey of 8500 people, Herring answers most of the questions people have about men and women’s experience with penises. Besides statistics on everything from women’s opinion on the importance of length to the number of sexual partners each respondent had, Herring mixes in anecdotes, survey open ended answers, and his own open, loving opinions. As with previous shows, Herring has worked hard so that even though you are laughing much of the time, you come away knowing quite a bit more about a subject.	Underbelly Bristo Square	20:15 – 21:15	13
36.	The Two Most Perfect Things (****) A pair of couples and a pianist tell of the lives of Noel Coward and Ivar Novello, the stylish playwrights and entertainers of the ‘20s and ‘30s, through song and dance. While I knew Coward well, I had not heard of the more accomplished Novello. The show provided a great contrast between the two men as Coward’s songs reflect both his wit and his bitterness while the much loved Novello’s were also witty but had a tenderness and sincerity usually missing from Coward’s.	Assembly Roxy	11:10 – 12:20	7
37.	Hal Cruttenden: Tough Luvvie (****) Hal is a happily married, campy comedian who mixed insightful observations about current affairs with amusing self-deprecating tales from his own life. Whether he is suggesting that each country reveres its time as an underdog, or recounting his false bravado dealing with a road rager the atmosphere was always warm and friendly. I was particularly impressed with how well he handled being upstaged by a witty comment from the audience—he noted that it earned a huge laugh, took a sip of water, and then continued.	Pleasance Courtyard	21:45 – 22:45	5
38.	Maurice's Jubilee (****) Maurice is dying, but he is obsessing about lasting until the Queen visits him on his 90th birthday, the day before her 60th jubilee. Though there are a few too many clever lines by Maurice, his wife, and the hospice nurse, to secure the drama of the piece, the underlying sense of inevitable death remained. I did feel sorry for the second fiddle wife, and thought the "Queen's" remarks were particularly incisive.	Pleasance Courtyard	16:25 – 17:55	27
39.	Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro! (****) The comedian relates anecdotes about growing up with a hard driving contractor father who learned to love opera in spite of his working class roots. This was an unusual show for the Traverse because it' format was so similar to story shows presented by other comedians at the Fringe. Nonetheless, it is well designed with literally an operatic climax at the home of his father who suffered from Alzheimer's.	Traverse Theatre	10:00 – 11:00	23
40.	Pappy’s: Last Show Ever! (****) Three fellows present well constructed sketches with clever running gags. Though their show is ostensibly about how the three came to the point of splitting up, that is just a handy framework for zany antics. My favorite sketch starts by dividing firemen into two categories, those who put out fires, and those who save cats from trees, and then applies this same absurd analysis to cats and trees.	Pleasance Dome	20:20 – 21:20	5
41.	A Guide to Second Date Sex (****) A young fellow invites a woman over to his flat with his flatmates gone with no real plan on what they are going to do. The charm of this play is how each person responds to the situation as it evolves from an unexpected stay in a bedroom to watch a movie to the discovery that they have very different views on a common friend. I must admit that I do like voiceovers, and here they are perfect for revealing the perplexed thoughts of the potential lovers.	Underbelly Cowgate	22:45 – 23:45	6
42.	Peep - "Meat" (****) A wife discovers that her husband has being visiting porn sites. I liked the honesty of their discussion as they admit that the videos do not always engender fantasies with their spouses. The wife's experiences have a wonderfully revealing aspect that raises the story to another level.	Pleasance Courtyard	18:00 – 18:20	25
43.	Blink (****) A naïve, socially stunted young man finds contentment observing a woman who society rarely noticed. The play moves smoothly as the dysfunctional grow to fill each other’s needs, first by a premeditated act, and later by an accident. The re-use of a baby/father monitor was inspired.	Traverse	10:30 – 11:40	17
44.	The Beast (****) Stuart Bowden tells the tale of an inoffensive monster who is curious about the lives of the people in small town near his cave. This is just a charming whimsical tale that he interlaces with looped falsetto songs accompanied by his ukulele. A gentleness pervades the experience that makes his final bicycle ride most touching.	Underbelly Cowgate	20:10 – 21:00	16
45.	The Boat Factory (****) This two-man tribute to the Belfast shipyard that built more than one thousand ships, including the Titanic, has a retired worker telling of his five-year apprenticeship as he learned of the workings and people of the gigantic facility. This is a wonderful mix of unique characters, lists of tools, construction lore, stories of accidents, expansive views from gantries, and very personal life events. As a handyman/general contractor, I suppose the building side may resonate with me more than for other audience members.	Hill Street Theater	18:30 – 19:50	17
46.	Miss Havisham’s Expectations (****) Linda Marlowe portrays the betrayed spinster from Dickens’ “Great Expectations” as Havisham provides her on view of the events of the novel as well as their relationship to the author’s life. Marlowe achieves this mix of fiction and biography without ever leaving character. With Havisham as the focus, I gained a better understanding of her transformation from bitter trainer of Estella to a repenter for the pain she has caused Pip.	Gilded Balloon Teviot	15:00 – 1600	13
47.	Hangman (****) Five Russian physical theater artists present wildly different scenes of murders, efforts to avoid publicity of the crimes, and their inevitable punishment. From musical chairs while hangman is played in the background, to contortions at a table as a low chandelier swings narrowly above, to the final toast as sand ours on their bowlers the play is full of intriguing images. The spaghetti Western music that often accompanies the action contributes both catchy rhythms for the movements, and a sense of rough justice.	Assembly Roxy	16:00 – 17:00	7
48.	The Blues Brothers – Live (****) Jake and Elwood are here to provide ‘50s and ‘60s blues, with a horn section and back-up singers to provide a nice big sound. The players had a good time, and so did the audience. My only problem with the show is that the venue does not allow room for dancing by the audience that was one of wonderful parts of the experience in all of the venues in years past.	C eca	21:45 – 23:00	10
49.	One Hour Only (****) For her first prostitution trick, a forensic biology student has a hard working engineering student using a gift from his friends for his 21^st birthday. This well crafted play makes good use of its opportunities to explore both of their fields of interest, job interviews, and, of course, prostitution. I appreciated the nuanced approach to prostitution, with a highlight being her attempt at a Polish accent because she had been told that customer preferred foreign girls.	Underbelly Cowgate	17:20 – 18:20	16
50.	The Table (****) Three men manipulate a meter tall stick puppet with an enormous cardboard head as he talks about his own world, and then attempts to present a story about the death of Moses while contending with the vagaries of a live show. His patter about the table, and how the three create the illusion of life had all of the audience constantly laughing. When I later learned that they had planned the accidents, I was all the more impressed with their crafty “improvised” performance, complete with the puppeteers acting like they are breaking up with their own laughter.	Pleasance Courtyard	22:30 – 23:30	11
51.	The Death of Chatterton (****) A charming American PhD student pesters a British expert as he investigates the poisoning of the 18^th century poet. The play has a “Da Vinci Code” feel as well as clever parallels between the student’s charm and that of Chatterton. This is quite a big production for the Fringe, with lavish costumes and a huge cast.	Pleasance Courtyard	12:25 – 13:35	25
52.	Modern Town (****) The main storekeeper in a moribund town agrees to take a loan that leads to dramatic changes in the community. The show does a fine job of demonstrating how the incremental changes dictated by economic necessity can break down the social ties that bind a community together. It did leave me with mixed feelings because the damaging changes could only be justified if the town was on the verge of dying	Pleasance Courtyard	16:00 - 17:10	25
53.	Female Gothic (****) On a darkly lit stage, dressed in a black Victorian dress, Rebecca Vaughn simply tells three Gothic horror tales set in the 19th century. The last was best as we hear of shadow in a house that seeps out of sight when the protagonist tries to look directly at it. The only problems are that with only one voice, and a dark stage I did have a little battle with sleep.	Assembly George Square	11:45 – 13:00	26
54.	Tam O’Shanter (****) A large cast presents the traditional Robert Burn’s tale of the wastrel with many songs and other poems mixed in. Whether it be his many visits to a pub, or his scary journey home on his mare the production was top notch throughout. I only gave it four stars because I often could not understand the Scottish accents.	Assembly Hall	12:00 -13:30	12
55.	The Girl with No Heart (****) Written as an allegory for the children of Hiroshima, this fairy tale uses full size puppets to tell the story of a young girl from a hand where all wishes come true who takes a one way trip to a wasteland where children live in their own paper city trying to protect themselves the adult war. The slow, quiet tale, with is paper brick city and children rescued with origami crane airplanes has a purity that brought tears to my eyes. On particularly touching idea was that the children of the wasteland protected their hearts by hiding them in their sleeves, and would only hand them to their closest friends.	Bedlam Theatre	17:00 – 17:55	8
56.	Montmorency (****) In 1875, while recovering in prison from an operation by a famous surgeon, a badly injured thief discusses a plan to use the newly constructed London sewers to burgle houses with his crippled mentor. The large cast and huge set succeed at recreating the feel of the sewers, prisons, gentlemen’s clubs, and tenements of 19^th century London. Though Montmorency is the protagonist, I was drawn to Freakshow, the cripple, as he deals with the possibility of leaving his secure prison environment for the vagaries and insults of city.	C Venue	19:25 – 20:30	9
57.	Time for Fun (****) Dressed in black, a large troupe of young performers uses only their exposed arms and hands to create words, images, and animations. The opening sequence is a tour de force with them spelling out a welcome message, creating such things as cars, and kaleidoscope effects. While the later sections are still fun to watch, they rarely use any techniques that had not been used in the first act, with the addition of sticks particularly highlighting their creative exhaustion.	Assembly Roxy	14:30 – 15:30	16
58.	Molly Naylor and the Middle Ones: My Robot Heart (****) With the two musicians providing short interludes, Molly tells the tales of an emotional robot, an 11-year old boy having his loyalty tested, a bride having doubts, and the bride’s father. Molly is a good storyteller, but the low tech band was just a distraction. She did a great job of painting word pictures, and getting to the core lesson of each story.	Pleasance Courtyard	15:25 – 16:25	21
59.	Bullet Catch (****) Rob Drummond, a mentalist/magician, reads the minds of audience members by asking them simple questions, and finishes by duplicating the trick that has killed many of previously by catching a bullet in his teeth from a gun fired at his face. Drummond’s mentalist patter is the best I have ever heard. It was not until he started doing standard magic like the squashing bottle in bags and a floating table that I realized that this was just a glorified magic show.	Traverse	10:30 – 11:45	15
60.	The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show - Menu 2 (****) This menu has two new plays and three plays from previous years. My favorite had a repressed couple at breakfast with the wife asking the husband to undress her verbally, and then repeatedly critiquing his valiant effort. As an annual visitor, I'm disappointed with the number of old works presented in this set.	Pleasance Dome	10:30 – 11:30	25
61.	The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show - Menu 3 (****) This menu has five new plays, and unlike the other two menus, this one has no plays from the previous years. I had two favorites: 1) a cheery fellow and a depressed man coincidentally meet on a rooftop with the intents of committing suicide, and 2) after ten years without a Valentine's Day date, an unknown admirer asks her out, and she is very suspicious. Though the other plays were a little weaker, I do prefer seeing new plays to retreads.	Pleasance Dome	10:30 – 11:30	26
62.	Mr Braithwaite Has a New Boy (****) Much to the consternation of his friends and neighbors, a retired gay man asks a rough, young male prostitute to move into his flat. Despite being filled with stereotypical caricatures, the play manages to portray the relationship between the two men as real and caring. The third actor provides most of the comedy with his narcoleptic neighbor lady, and grindr addicted friend.	C Aquila	18:25 – 19:30	27
63.	Dirty Barbie (****) This autobiographical tale makes use of many shirts and tons of dolls to re-enact the life of a North Carolina girl with an alcoholic mother and supportive neighbors. There is nothing particularly unique in her experiences, but her honesty and vitality proved winning. At one point, she reads a paean to her from a classmate in her real eighth grade yearbook, but then goes on to describe how she coaxed her pals to moon that same girl when the girl hesitated to enter their playground.	Assembly Hall	13:30 – 14:30	6
64.	Confessions of a Grindr Addict (****) A campy fellow prepares for a date by drinking wine and talking about his encounters with men he met on the gay dating iPhone app. While his stories range from the pathetic to the tender to the comedic, all are amusing and have the ring of truth. As the show ended, I realized that such catty remarks would never be accepted if they had been made about heterosexual encounters.	Assembly Hall	21:00 – 22:00	6
65.	The Half (****) Guy Masterson portrays a has-been alcoholic actor in his dressing room just before trying to resurrect his career by playing all of the parts in Hamlet. As I expected, Masterson is superb as he works through acting exercises, self doubts, and rapid excerpts from Hamlet. Though his battle with alcohol allows Masterson to demonstrate his acting range, there was too little back story for his character, and the whole play becomes an acting demonstration rather than a story about a character for whom we care.	Assembly George Square	14:00 – 15:10	15
66.	Company (****) Despite seeing the dysfunctional marriages of his friends, the popular bachelor Bobby still trys to find a mate among three mismatched woman. Though the large cast has strong voices and acting, they do not represent the diversity of ages that Sondheim’s musical needs at times. In particular, the grand dame and the “young” hippie girl appear to be about the same age.	C Venuen	16:20 – 18:50	14
67.	Call Me! (****) This comedy has three women friends repeatedly leave inappropriate voice mail messages for their love interests, while slowly learning how to break their emotional bonds to the men. Whether from drunken loneliness, anger from being spurned, or desperate adoration, each story had its comic touches and yet rang true. After leaving an initial message that that had a too desperate tone, the series of follow-up “corrections” were great fun as she could keep herself from making gaffes that revealed her consuming interest.	Sweet	22:10 – 23:20	19
68.	Angels (****) This one-man show has a security guard is hauled into a filthy interrogation room for the murder of a man that fell from a building. The writing is evocative to the point of being poetry, and the acting is superb. The play is just too dense, and exhausted me as well as many other audience members.	Traverse	10:30 – 11:30	19
69.	Mr. Carmen (****) This mix of physical theatre and art has two men in a silent competition to come up with different ways to create their names, Jose and Carmen. Starting with a conveyor belt made of bits of string and wooden pulleys, they use every manner of odd objects in their efforts. The show takes an odd turn as one artist ferociously attacks a wooden heart with a knife until he has pierced it repeatedly.	Assembly Roxy	18:00 – 19:00	11
70.	Dirty Paki Lingerie (***) Azzah Fatima portrays six Pakistani females in the USA, ranging from a 6-year old to two twentysomethings to much older mothers. The diversity of characters and nativity allow Fatima to contrast emigrant women’s roles and views with those of the second generation. Though she tried to use the position of a scarf to indicate which character was speaking, there seemed to be only three positions so I often mistook a character until well into their monologue.	Assembly Hall	17:15 – 18:15	19
71.	Peep – Play 2 (***) As an audience of 12 watch from individual one-way mirrored cubicles, four actors in a four meter square box perform mini-plays dealing with sex that each last between twenty seconds and two minutes. I appreciated the cleverness of our restricted physical view having an analogous restricted temporal view.	Pleasance Courtyard	15:00 – 15:20	22
72.	The Oxford Imps (***) Nine Oxford students used audience suggestions as starting points for stories, songs, and puns. Though the Imps are usually the best amateurs at the Fringe, it has been seven years since the group has had more than two great improvisers at one time. I always feel sorry for the American students, because there is always a competition that asks the group to use a specific British accent, and the Americans never have an ear for the differences.	Gilded Balloon Teviot	15:15 – 16:15	19
73.	Alan Davies – Life is Pain (***) We did not know what to expect from Davies since we know him from the “Jonathan Creek” -series in America, and the rest of the people in the queue know him from the British TV show “QI”. I was hoping to hear of anecdotes of an interesting life, and instead heard the typical stand-up comedy of a man with a new baby. .He made my disappointment worse when he veered into mundane sexual comedy	EICC	19:40 – 20:40	14
74.	All That is Wrong (***) An 18-year old uses the entire floor as a chalkboard to write and connect innumerable words describing her view of life. Like its two predecessors, this “chaotic” creation, is actually a carefully rehearsed performance piece that resulted from the collaboration of many teenagers in Belgian company. A particularly wry moment occurs when after listing multinational companies that she will boycott she decides to only put a question mark next to Apple.	Traverse Theatre	17:30 – 18:35	12
75.	Rubies in the Attic (***) Four women tell of an event in their grandparents’ lives, and sing a variety of songs with a blend reminiscent of the Andrew Sisters of World War II (Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy). Each woman tells her story well as we hear of such disparate tales as that of Jewish immigration to South Africa, and a woman with a penchant for bald men. It surprises me that only two days later I am left with a good feeling about the show, but few strong memories from it other than I really enjoyed their singing.	Assembly Roxy	18:30 – 19:30	7
76.	Winston on the Run (***) This covers Winston Churchill's life from his failed effort to become a Conservative MP through his escape from a POW camp during the Boer War. I found his consistent portrayal of Churchill as an overly emphatic know-it-all too one-dimensional. There is also a very confusing scene that inexplicably blends his capture with the signals for his rescue from a coal mine.	Pleasance Courtyard	14:45 – 15:45	25
77.	Educating Ronnie (***) This autobiographical story has an English college student providing financial support to a college student in Uganda without being sure it is not a scam. As we see the actual text messages from the Ugandan, the ambivalence of the Englishman drives the story. The contrast of their two lives is instructive, but loses much of its power because we do not know if the Ugandan is lying.	Assembly George Square	13:15 – 14:15	25
78.	The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean (***) This children’s play has a doctor of scrapology patiently turning the pages of a scrapbook to uncover a Victorian life that starts out mundane, and becomes fanatastical. Though the nod to scientific precision is laudable, the slow pace tried my own patience. I did like how she used later entries to solve mysteries earlier in the book.	Traverse & the Scottish Book Trust	11:00 – 12:00	22
79.	Virginia Ironside – Growing Old Disgracefully (***) Virginia Ironside, an “Agony Auntie”, and makes wry observations on her life now that she is 68. While she did not ignore the drawbacks, she concentrated on the more subtle advantages of being older like realizing that she feels safer because hoodlums will now smile back at her. It did bother me that she was happy that sex and travel were behind her. I lowered my rating of this show because, despite a title change, this show contains almost the same material as her 2009 show.			25
80.	Belt Up Theatre’s Outland (***) A dying Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) alternates between his real friends and a fantasy world full of political intrigue called Outland. With its own wildly decorated room for a set, and lots of audience participation the fantastical world is easily imagined, but the real world suffers for it. I was impressed that even though the Outland populated with histrionic characters, Dodgson needed to make only subtle changes to function in either world.	C Nova	21:05 – 22:20	17
81.	The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show (***) This show has three rotating sets of plays, with set all dealing with World War II. The best play was a reprise from last year that had a modern couple choosing to live their lives exactly as if it October 30, 1942. The other two plays were not as polished as one was a predictable seduction in an air raid shelter, and the other had Hedy Lamarr providing a fragmented life story.	Pleasance Dome	10:30 – 11:30	20
82.	Anthony Rapp – Without You (***) A member of the original cast of “Rent,” Rapp uses words and song to describe the creation of that rock opera, and his extended efforts to support his dying mother. Rapp is certainly personable, and my companions loved this show, but I found his voice wanting at times, the band too loud, and the choice of high energy rock instead of ballads as he deals with his mother was repeatedly jarring. His stories of loss are touching, and the songs from Rent cannot help but lead to loud ovations, it is the remaining songs that brought this down.	Underbelly Bristo Square	22:30 – 23:45	12
83.	The Day the Sky Turned Black (***) Ali Scott, a radio journalist, recounts her own experience as well that of five survivors of the Australian 2009 bushfires. Her selection of people range from a six year old to a grandmother, and provide multi-faceted glimpse into the events. In particular, her choice to focus on the six-years old conveys boyhood adventure during his narrow escape, naïvete when dealing with is best friend’s death, and recovery as he teaches a youngster to ride a BMX bike like his friend.	Assembly Roxy	15:00 – 15:50	9
84.	Peep - "SexLife" (***) To prove that their sex life has not ended with the birth of their baby, a husband dresses in women's lingerie, and then dances for his formerly sdvnterous wife. This has a fresh take on a common topic, and succeeds at both communicating his love as well as rekindling their sex life in a peep show manner. Though she is a striking woman when she completely disrobes, her lack of a mentioned post-pregnancy stomach roll belies the play.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:00 – 13:20	26
85.	Bring the Happy (***) Three young researchers and a rock band present the results of asking more than 1000 for a description of a happy event, including its location in Leeds. The company would read answers and/or sing songs about categories based on the location or source of happiness. The grand finale party with the audience waltzing was fun, but the sound was too loud to hear many of the answers.	Northern Stage at St. Stephen’s	21:00 – 23:30	21
86.	Excess (***) A gay man asks his bitter, estranged sister to visit and then reveals that he is changing his sex to her, and later his drag queen lover. The three characters offer stories on a wide range of topics ranging from airport security to overcoming stage fright with bad jokes. I found the use of hand puppets for her stories unnecessarily confusing.	C nova	17:25 – 18:30	10
87.	Juana in a Million (***) Vicky Casas portrays Juana, an undocumented Mexican immigrant to the UK who works hard at repetitive menial jobs, but because of that status she has no legal recourse when she is abused by her employers. Casas’ flair for dancing runs throughout the play as she relives her well matched steps with her doomed Mexican lover, and she later transforms each repetitive job into a stylized routine. Because her dancing is so good, it detracts from the intended heartbreak we are suppose to feel for the plight of such women.	Pleasance Dome	16:15 – 17:15	6
88.	The Boy with Tape on His Face – More Tape (***) A young man with tape over his mouth gesticulates to guide selected audience members to do unusual tasks. These party-game tasks are fun to watch, but I found the sections where he worked alone to be unoriginal. I particularly liked the “gunfight” between him and a fellow that used staple guns and as guns with each person awkwardly holding three balloons as their bodies.	Pleasance Courtyard	21:40 – 22:40	13
89.	Looby Loo: No Strings Attached (***) Fifty years after starring in a children’s television show, the now stringless puppets try to deal with being unwanted and out of place in the human world by mounting a digital reprise of their show. The show they attempt to produce certainly harkens back to my 1950s childhood experience, but the theme of a well meaning last hurrah did not grab me. I did like their realization of a stuffed teddy bear unsuccessfully trying to dance with jointed puppets.	C Nova	21:05 – 22:05
90.	Boom Boom Club (***) The one consistent thread of a cabaret is its compere while the quality of a given night depends on its acts for that night. Dusty Limits, the compere, is a charming, flamboyant gay fellow who used to add much to his cabarets by singing, but now has reduced his active participation to sly comments and introductions. The acts that night were mediocre in the main with the Hitler singer Frank Sanazi the most revolting, a stripper wrapping herself in cellophane (including across her mouth) the most disturbing, and none worth seeing again.	Underbelly Cowgate	00:30 – 04:00	9
91.	Everything Else Happened (***) This piece has four diverse monologues: a Jewish grandmother talking to her grandson, a man and his recorded wife making disjoint observations about their marriage, an aged children’s clown speaking of his work, and a lecturer describing a system of punctuation used to symbolize the types of silences in his family. While all four were well written and performed, the two high concept pieces did not grab me like the two conventional slice of life pieces. The image that still stays with me is that of the unemployed clown searching his many-pocketed coat only to find that one “pocket” was only a rip caused by a mugger.	Assembly Roxy	13:00 – 14:00	7
92.	Grit (***) Slides, rod puppetry, cardboard cutouts, and actual Syrian children’s artwork address the impact of war on children. Though each part is well done, later parts become just repetitious media essays. The most powerful section was the only one with extended verbal narrative, and described a former Khmer Rouge child soldier who founded an orphanage and personally removed thousands of mines.	Bedlam Theatre	20:00 – 20:40	8
93.	Hell's Bells by Lynne Truss (***) The writer, lead actress, and a hat expert gather to do a DVD commentary for a minor TV series from 20 years ago that is now in demand because one of its minor actresses is now a star. This blend of catty remarks, fond remembrances, and in depth discourses on hats unsuccessfully moves from a light dramedy suited to the characters to a madcap comedy exploiting each characters' weaknesses. I found the mutilation of the hats as inappropriate as the millinery historian did.	Pleasance Courtyard	11:45 – 12:30	25
94.	Camille Claudel (***) A young woman portrays the sculptor who had a close relationship with August Rodin for fourteen years, and was committed to an insane asylum by her family eight years later. The story of art and love is occasionally beautiful, but her frequent dancing consistently detracts from the power of the piece. There is one nice scene where Rodin is touching her body that is a mix of a sculptor’s investigation and perceived foreplay.	Pleasance Courtyard	13:30 – 14:30	22
95.	Uninvited (***) A man of precision who lives alone must deal with an obstinate intruder while three bulging house beings also subtly disrupt up his world. Though in hindsight I think the story was well told, my experiences just prior to the start of the play dominate my thoughts about it. My play before this was “Picnic Apocalyptic” with its grotesquely bulging costumed characters including lust and gluttony, and just before “The Uninvited” began one house being with a similarly bulging midsection very slowly approached me and asked me to fiddle her. Since another house being had the rotund look of gluttony, I vainly tried to interpret all three of them as the man’s vices through much of the play instead of their intended house gremlins roles.	Bedlam Theatre	14:00 – 15:00	8
96.	Born to Run (***) A woman jogs on a treadmill while explaining how she became a long distance runner as treatment for her epilepsy. Though the idea is novel, the play seems more expository than personal. I had read a magazine article about the woman upon which the character is loosely based, and found the real story provided a deeper understanding of epilepsy, running, and the woman’s personal life.	Traverse Theatre	10:00 – 10:45	21
97.	The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen (***) Three actors play three aspects of the real life Doctor Crippen, who married a domineering unfaithful actress, and falls in love with his assistant in the early 1900s. There is some fun seeing the tongue-tied emotional side trying to woo the assistant, but it is too far a reach to make a comedy about a murderer. The portrayal of the wife as without any redeeming characteristics badly hurts the believability of the story.	C Venue	21:45 – 22:50	22
98.	Sam Simmons – About the Weather (***) Though there is an ongoing story of an encounter on a bus, this is more a scattershot of comic ideas. This is not improvisation, but rather well planned disjoint routines. I would have enjoyed this much more if he had not been yelling almost unintelligibly much of the time.	Gilded Balloon Teviot	21:15 – 22:15	20
99.	A Strange Wild Song (***) As his grandson tries to understand the contents of excavated World War II still camera film, we see the grandfather as a lost soldier in Normandy who comes upon a bombed out town that is only inhabited by three young brothers playing war. The interactions between the brothers and the soldier evolve nicely from tentative apprehension to a full scale romp, and the anthropologists are a clever way to provide context for the lost warrior. However, after two plays focused on the horrific impact of war on children earlier in the day, I could not join the audience in laughing at the brothers’ antics, and left feeling that a big part of their reality was missing from the play.	Bedlam Theatre	21:00 – 22:00	8
100.	Mother to Mother (***) A South African mother tries to communicate her sorrow as well as the circumstances that led to her son killing the visiting daughter of an American woman. Though we see slides of her depressed neighborhood, and hear of her sons troubles, this seems like a tragedy that does not go anywhere. While it is clear that her sorrow for the daughter’s death is real, there is also a subtle element of recrimination that the daughter should not have known better than being in the ghetto in the first place.	Assembly George Square	16:00 – 17:00	20
101.	Jubilate! by Rosalind Adler (***) Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the haughty, overconfident wife of vicar continues to provide misguided help to the women of her parish. This play cannot decide whether it will be a black comedy or a drama. On the one hand, her continued sense of superiority obscures any real caring and the character becomes a caricature, but the dire consequences of her blunders are rooted so deeply in reality they cannot be funny.	Pleasance Courtyard	12:40 – 13:40	18
102.	Six and a Tanner (***) David Hayman plays a man speaking to his father’s coffin about his ordeals at the hands of the abusive man. As an American, I could understand Hayman’s accent most of the time, but when he switched to his father’s heavier brogue I was completely at a loss. The few stories I could understand were quite touching, and the rest of the audience loved the whole show.	The Assembly Rooms	13:00 – 14:10	16
103.	Morning (***) In just three days, a 19-year old sociopath starts by stealing her brother’s iPod to give as a gift for her “passive” sociopathic girlfriend, and then the pair get their kicks in a much darker fashion. The play is very well done, but its focus on uncaring characters was just too unpleasant for me after just seeing the loving anguish of “And No More Shall We Part.” I loved the subtlety of the girlfriend simply pocketing the iPod right after learning from the sociopath that her brother would really miss it.	12:30 – 13:50	Traverse	14
104.	A Cry Too Far From Heaven (***) A modern executioner speaks of his trade, and then a woman from 1895 and a World War I deserter describe the events that led to their unjust execution. This is not a simple play about the injustice of execution, but more an essay on execution as a fact of life. While the two long stories told by the condemned appropriately provide exculpatory evidence, the executioner (or his surrogate) does an admirable job of appearing rigid and yet providing cogent rebuttals that try to quickly deflate their defenses.	theSpace at Surgeons Hall	16:05 – 16:55	9
105.	Once in a House on Fire (***) Two daughters must deal with their mother’s repeated choice of abusive husbands. It was heartbreaking to see the mother repeatedly send her proud daughters to talk with her husband only to have them return rejected. My language skills again failed me as I could not understand many of their lines.	Northern Stage at St. Stephen’s	14:40 – 15:40	17
106.	Soldiers’ Wives (***) Catherine Shipton rotates through portraying five army wives whose husbands serve together in Afghanistan. The wives have diverse lives and husbands, but because Shipton makes only subtle changes when shifting among them, it is difficult to know who is speaking. Only the major’s wife, with her rigid bearing and clipped speech came alive as she tried to fulfill her assigned role as morale manipulator.	Assembly Roxy	12:30 – 13:30	15
107.	The Silencer – David Calvitto (***) A fifty-year old man tries to recover from being jilted by the “one love of his life” by using other women.. Though the fellow initially seems charming, we soon find him to be a crass cad with virtually no redeeming qualities.. Nonetheless the final scene of violence seems completely out of character.	Pleasance Courtyard	12:40 – 13:40	23
108.	Mess (***) Despite seeing a therapist and the misguided efforts of her close friend, and anorexic cannot overcome her illness. I had thought the disorder was solely based on body image, but this play taught me that it can arise from the need to control one’s life. Despite having a better understanding of the disease and her background, I found that I had little patience for the rigid protagonist.	Traverse	10:30 – 11:40	18
109.	The Rat Pack – Live (***) This show normally has singers calling themselves Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., but that night a fellow calling himself Peter Lawford took over for the Sammy Davis Jr. character. Unlike the Blues Brothers act of this production company, this franchise has gone downhill over the past years. Instead of a well crafted homage with an energetic band, we now have singers that make only token efforts at emulating their namesakes (with a Frank Sinatra who did not even know the names of the people in the Rat Pack, let alone the famous phrasings of Old Blue Eyes), some of the songs unfamiliar to the original singers, and a back row of the band that had replaced joy with workmanlike scowls.	C eca	19:00 – 20:00	10
110.	Towards the Moon (***) This musical has a recently unemployed writer discover that his supportive girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend, and then is convinced by an angle to change his approach to life. Thought the singing was reasonable there was nothing here that really grabbed me. The metaphorical difference between a "path towards the moon" and a "path towards the sun" was suppose to drive much of the play, but had no clear meaning to me.	C Venue	12:00 – 13:00	24
111.	The Intervention (***) The father, mother, friend, lover, and an Alcoholics Anonymous counselor meet at drunken author's house to try to get him to stop drinking. The storyline is strong, but the comedic elements have no place here. In particular, the enabling friend certainly had contributed to the alcoholism, but his constant buffoonery eliminates the verisimilitude of the play.	Assembly Rooms	19:05 – 20:20	26
112.	Excuse Me, I’m Trying to Please You (***) With a keyboardist, Fiona Paul provides stories and songs about people’s often misguided efforts to please others. Despite her best efforts to make this an upbeat experience, I could not help but feel the irony of a poorly attended show trying to please its audience in misguided ways. For example, rather than generate a festive atmosphere, having four tables of people blow party horns reminds everyone of how small the group is.	Zoo Southside	15:20 – 16:15	18
113.	Captain Ferguson’s School for Balloon Warfare (***) Based on a true story from World War I, an U.S. Army captain tells of his efforts to train and then deploy more than 2000 men to move observation blimps along the front lines. The facts are interesting, but Ferguson’s steadfast primness and stilted language make him a caricature. I am amazed that they lost only two aeronauts despite the fact that a simple bullet could explode the hydrogen-filled blimps.	Assembly Roxy	11:15 – 12:15	21
114.	Barely Legal: 18 Years of South African Comedy (***) Dave Levinsohn and Loyiso Gola each provide a half hour of standup comedy. Despite the show’s title, Levinsohn rarely ventured into topics unique to his country, but Gola used many references including his imitation of Nelson Mandela throughout as he contrasted his ghetto past with the rich first world. Gola’s routine about the proper way to kill an individual instead of innocent bystanders was chilling.	Assembly Roxy	21:10 – 22:10	18
115.	Love All (***) The true story of a ne’er-do-well Irish tennis star who marries a French in 1891 whose efforts address their debts become more and more desperate. Despite the depressing plot the story is presented in a whimsical, mugging vaudevillian manner. This airy approach obscures the possible emotional power of the events with a bunch of fluff.	Assembly Roxy	14:20 – 15:25	7
116.	People Show 121: The Detective Show (***) Three likeable actors use hats to differentiate a myriad of characters in an Agatha Christie type murder mystery. In the Christie fashion, the plot does twist as new evidence is revealed, but at some point it just becomes a send up of plot twists instead of a satisfying mystery. The repeated arguments about who should be allowed to stand on the narrator’s table contribute nothing to the plot, nor the attempted comedy	Assembly George Square	19:30 – 20:30	7
117.	Bottleneck (***) A fifteen year old Liverpudlian tells of dealing with loyalty, a deserted father, action films, and his pursuit of a ticket to the ill-fated Liverpool FC game in November 1989 in which fans crushed themselves to death. Because the actor is unrelentingly energetic and intense throughout the show, it wore me out, and numbed me. I did like how he decided to stick up for his unpopular friend despite the physical and social cost.	Pleasance Courtyard	14:00 – 15:00	23
118.	Dylan Thomas: Return Journey – Bob Kingdom (***) Since it was a returning show, I was hopeful that my second show of the day with Bob Kingdom would be better than his new show about the Duke of Windsor. Kingdom again portrayed a historic figure recounting his life, but this time he could rely on the beautiful phrases of the Welsh poets for much of the script. However, this show also lacked emotional vitality – here a man reads his life instead of reliving it.	Assembly Hall	14:45 – 15:45	6
119.	An Audience with the Duke of Windsor – Bob Kingdom (***) Bob Kingdom portrays the former King Edward VIII as he recounts his life after he abdicated the throne to marry the American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Though we hear of his sadistic nanny and his deep love for Simpson they have no life to them. There is no vitality here, just an old man trying to work hard to write his autobiography.	Assembly Hall	12:00 – 13:15	6
120.	The Imaginary Radio Programme: Drennon Davis (***) Davis and a keyboardist/singer scan through an imaginary radio and provide songs, ads, and patter from a variety of radio program formats. While it is the music that differentiates most radio stations, the most fun in this show is when we hear the announcers. Davis is a master of a looping machine, but he tends to lay down the same percussive beats so the music does not vary as much as it should.	Assembly Roxy	22:30 -
121.	Picnic Apocalyptic (**) An apocalyptic cult presents a play of ten “undermen” who have been cast out of heaven telling the tale of the woman Belle’s growing acknowledgement of faith and the Apocalypse. They had wonderfully grotesque costumes and sang well, but I could not understand many of their misdirected lines. The supposed real play becomes fantasy as characters start to jerk through words like a skipping record as the playwright/scroll reader/leader tries to find the right word for them, but the final plot twist belies this whole aura of magic and left me quite dissatisfied.	Bedlam Theatre	12:30 – 13:30	8
122.	Dead Man’s Cell Phone (**) While eating at a café, the customer across from a woman dies, and she decides to answer his cell phone and make the callers’ lives by lying to them. The beginning of the play works fairly well as she tries to fake her knowledge of the dead man, and decipher the needs of the callers. The balance of the show with its topics of organ transplants, familial discord, and heavenly waiting rooms consistently fails because of both poor acting, and an unrealistic script.	C Venue	15:45 – 16:50	10
123.	Monkey Bars (**) This is an experiment to see if when adults say the previously recorded answers of children, the children’s answers would be taken more seriously by the audience. This seemed a re-hash of the old Art Linkletter TV show section “Children Say the Darndest Things.” Though sort of cute at times, there really was much here.	Traverse	10:30 – 11:45	16
124.	The Election : A Silent Comedy (**) A politician and his two aides prepare for an election results party. From Three Stooges fights to repeatedly exchanged possessions, the silent trio work through most of the standard silent slapstick routines with few innovations. I did like a scene of repeated conflicting paths that evolved in to a pas de deux.	Bedlam Theatre	18:30 – 19:30	8
125.	In a Handbag, Darkly (**) This farce an attempt to extend the storyline of Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” by adding a second brother found in a handbag in Victoria Station. The characters are here, but not the wit. The presentation of the second brother as a puppet in handbag who rules the servants of the world is bizarre, and is completely out of place in a drawing room comedy.	theSpace on North Bridge	20:10 – 20:55	22
126.	The Ugly Sisters (**) The two stepsisters of Cinderella re-interpret the tale as one in which they are ugly and rejected by their mother and s were society. The two sisters and the three-piece rock ban were certainly energetic and loud, but that also meant that they were often unintelligible. Their yelling and brashness overshadow their tender mutual love and charmingly inept efforts at winning the prince.	Northern Stage at St. Stephen’s	22:00 – 23:00	16
127.	Fragment (**) Five young dancers explore social groupings. Though there were a few interesting movements and combinations, I was left with a sense of repetition and feeling of boredom. There was one good piece where an outsider surreptitiously gathers pillows from the sleeping crowd.	Greenside	16:05 – 17:05	15
128.	Death Boogie (**) Accompanied by a violin and a double bass a hip-hop singer utilizes a loop machine to produce well-constructed songs telling of a Caspar Milquetoast worker who dreams of being a revolutionary. While I appreciated their talent, these old ears often could not decipher his quick words, and so much of the show was lost on me. Though often repetitive, the background video of political drawings helps give a sense of urgency that any revolution must have.	Assembly Roxy	19:50 – 20:50	7
129.	This Way Up (**) During her first year after graduating with an Art degree, a young woman takes a job at a call center and deals with a jobless flat mate. This devised piece uses all sizes of corrugated boxes for all manner of props and sets that reflect the ramshackle life of graduates unable to find work in their chosen field. The problem with the play is that it too feels like something that was constructed of many disparate ideas that were thrown together with little forethought and depth.	C Venue	14:40 – 15:40	5
130.	Captain Ko and the Planet of Rice (**) This is composed of a three short pieces: two astronauts in space suits spending a million years almost silently looking for life on a planet, an Alzheimer woman miming to the sound effects of preparing breakfast twice, and Russian cosmonaut floating in the Soyuz space capsule while the Soviet Union disbands below him. While each play had something noticeably excellent, such as the space suits or the video camera images actually looking like he was in zero gravity, each was also deeply flawed. The search for life was tedious, the actress rarely matched her movements to the sound effects, and the video camera was mis-aimed so that it missed much of the action on the Soyuz.	Underbelly Cowgate	20:00 – 21:15	11
131.	The Company of Wolves (**) Though the show starts with the audience using children’s crafts to create cards of their deepest desires, the Red Riding Hood story is fairly adult with some sexual content. This slow play has little to offer other than a feminist Red Riding Hood. The created cards are not utilized, the singer is weak, and most of the acting seemingly for children, though the content is not.	C eca	20:35 – 21:25	10
132.	Quick! Save the Pizza! (**) What is the world to do when countries are disappearing because of the global economic crisis and their cultural treasures and foods disappear with them. This satire mixes the current political leaders of major countries with Indian superheroes to create a childish mush. In particular, the ambivalent role of China as rapacious buyer of the world, and then savior of the super heroes made no sense.	theSpace at Surgeons Hall	18:25 – 19:05	9
133.	Vive la Cabaret (**) This below average Fringe cabaret had a compere who spoke in platitudes of praise about each of the many uninspiring acts. Only Ria Lina, a blues singer, displayed enough talent to interest me in seeing her show. I am glad that other Fringe audiences will not have to endure this disappointing show since it was only scheduled for the first three days of the Fringe.	Pleasance Courtyard	22:45 – 0:00	5
134.	Perle (**) After his familial loss a man retreats into silence and only interacts with his TV. This glacial play starts with us staring at simple geometric shapes on the TV, and then moves on to the actor using his cartoon hands to make a sandwich on the screen. Even the audience participation is static as they were asked to not move at all once he has positioned them on stage.	Assembly Roxy	13:45 – 14:45	9
135.	Dad Doesn’t Dance (*) After a successful career, this senior dancer discovered that she had a different biological father, and tries to seek him out. From her swooping entrance from the back of the room, until her exit, she cannot keep herself from gesticulating in the manner of her art. All of the potential power of the play is lost in her narcissistic movements.	theSpace at Surgeons Hall	17:20 – 18:10	9

I am a 59-year old Computer Science lecturer from the University of California in Davis who thinks even a bad play is better than no play at all. Besides teaching, I work as a house painter / handyman to earn the extra money to pay for my travels. I have been to the Fringe eight times before. Nine years ago, after two weeks touring France, my wife and I spent nine days of our honeymoon at the Fringe. We shared 45 plays, and I attended ten other events besides. In 2005, I fulfilled a dream of seeing an entire Fringe Festival. Since then, I have been here for the whole Fringe every year except 2007. I have learned to devote most days to only one venue to maximize the number of performances I can see. I expect this year to be similar to last—many performances, and many new friends.

After attending more than 1000 performances, I have a much better idea of my biases and prejudices in the role of a critic. To limit my analyzing shows during their performances as much as possible, I have intentionally avoided any training in criticism and the dramatic arts, both formal and informal. I find that I prefer fact to fiction, innovation to repetition, coherence to creativity, the concrete to the symbolic, and cleverness to depth. I realize that many of these are antithetical to the spirit of the Fringe, but I cannot deny my nature. In particular, I just do not like shows that push the bounds of creativity beyond my ability to make sense of them. Because I choose to fill time slots with whatever is available, I still expose myself to such shows, and do not mind. However, I do feel a little guilty giving a low rating to a show on which a company has worked so hard, and with such commitment. Nevertheless, I envision that that is my role—to accurately report my enjoyment so that others may better use my ratings. In all but a very few cases, I admire the effort of each company, and wish them well.