Monkeys Everywhere
Pleasance Courtyard, 11.30am, until 25 August
It would take an infinite number of monkeys to write Shakespeare. Garry Starr does not have that many – although he has a lot – so, when he comes on in pantaloons and Elizabethan ruff, it is touch and go whether he and the monkeys will be able to write the end of this morning’s show.
That is especially the case given Starr has the attention span of a chimp. However many times he sits down at his manual typewriter there is always something to distract him: using the bin for target practice, catching nuts in his mouth, enlisting audience members to help him reach his high-level bed for a power nap that never happens.
With only the phone calls from the prime minister of theatre to keep him on track, he is never far from chaos. Physical comedy, surreal invention and general silliness combine in a tremendously enjoyable show, directed by Olivia Jacobs and touring to Manchester in September. The audience shriek their approval.
How to Catch a Book Witch
Underbelly Bristo Square, 11.30am, until 18 August
Turns out the scariest thing in the library is not the Book Witch at all. No, that accolade goes to Graham Grey, the local property developer, who likes nothing more than to render charming buildings in dull concrete. He looks at the library and sees a multi-storey car park.
Coppice theatre’s show for the over-fours belongs to a growing sub-genre of children’s plays in praise of lending libraries. Appropriately, the young cast adopt a storytelling style – complete with key word signing and chapter headings in Cornish – to describe how the fearless Kira figures out three mysteries.
Words are going missing from the books, leaving pages blank. Googly-eyed monsters are prowling the shelves. And somewhere beyond the rare books section lurks the fabled Book Witch.
In the company of Barry the bookworm, Kira cheerfully tackles each mystery in turn. With songs, puppets and projections, it is a hearty, colourful show that would benefit from more showing and less telling, but has a few unexpected twists along the way. There is even redemption for Graham Grey.
The Last Forecast
Assembly @ Dancebase, 1.15pm, until 18 August
Some geckos can change colour in response to their surroundings. The one here, played by dancer Shanelle Clemenson, has gone further. So acclimatised to her living room has she become that she is indistinguishable from the floral 70s wallpaper that bathes Alisa Kalyanova’s set in pink and orange. She is half-lizard, half-lampshade.
That gives her good camouflage when an islander is washed up in her house entangled in netting and his last worldly belongings. Played by Kieran Brown, he has been forced to migrate by rising waters. Under Bridie Gane’s jolly choreography in a show for the over-sixes created with Edinburgh’s Catherine Wheels, he goes through a watery routine of teeth-brushing, bathing and swimming before realising he is not alone.
The wordless piece, interrupted by surreal and apocalyptic shipping forecasts, goes through a to-and-fro of engagement, mirroring and acceptance before the dancers break out into a lively ceilidh reel. The waters, though, are still on the rise, resulting in a turbulent and disempowering finale for an otherwise polished and witty two-hander.
The Listies ROFL
Assembly George Square Studios, 11.50am, until 18 August
Heaven help the parent who had to put Matt Kelly to bed. Opposite straight-man Rich Higgins in Australian comedy double-act the Listies, he is a lord of misrule. After a day of watering the plants (leaving the audience wetter than the pots) and tidying the house (leaving a headache for the stage crew), it is time to sleep. The chances of Matt and Rich nodding off at the same time are slim.
With an uncommonly good line in fart and bum jokes, Matt is the over-excited child who cannot do as he is told. Elastic-limbed and with just enough charm to offset the cheek, he knows every delay tactic in the book. He clowns, he wisecracks, he plays the fool.
Rich is only marginally more sensible as they dance through a gross-out teeth brushing routine, solicit book recommendations and go full-on panto for a high-speed Jack and the Beanstalk. It is anarchic, knockabout fun, if alarmingly close to your own children’s nighttime routine.
A Bee Story
Assembly George Square Gardens, 12.10am, until 25 August
Whether it is a story about bees or an excuse for Robbie Curtis and Lizzie McRae to show off their acrobatic skills is a moot point. At the end of the performance by Australia’s Cluster Arts, they say they hope to inspire a conversation about the insects – a worthy aim when bee populations are in peril, but it is hard to see why this show would do that.
Rather, it is a series of stunts hung on a simple conceit: the queen bee wants pollen and the worker bee has to fetch it. The only problem is that the best stuff is out of reach atop an unfeasibly tall flower. In an effort to grab some, Curtis goes through the gamut of circus tricks, balancing on precarious towers of chairs, wobbling on a high unicycle, climbing on to the queen bee’s shoulders.
McRae, who for some reason is permanently cross, joins in with the juggling, tumbling and milking the audience for applause. They don’t say how they think juggling will help them get the pollen, nor what McRae’s upside-down flute playing will achieve, but the batons, balls and swords keep spinning in a jolly enough introduction to circus techniques, if not environmentalism.
