Fringe theatre reviews: ALTAR | Lioness | I Was A German

Underbelly, George Square (Venue 300) until 25 August

From the particular shade of napkin to the hang of the organza drapes, everything has to be spot-on for Sutton’s long-planned-for wedding to reformed school bad boy Ethan. That even extends to ensuring an invite for Sutton’s old flame Dana - who in the intervening years has transformed into Dan.

There’s a danger that writer Em Tambree’s heart-on-sleeve two-hander bites off more than it can realistically chew, tackling not only casual transphobia but also blind religious belief and scientific certainty. And there’s a nagging question of how and why a neurotic bride would spend an hour away from the scene of the action. But suspend your disbelief, and Tambree navigates a persuasively smooth course through her panoply of issues, while also refusing to paint butter-wouldn’t-melt Sutton or more progressive Dan as the show’s particular goodie or baddie.

They’re rounded characters, too, struggling with their evident deep love for each other while sometimes being appalled by one another’s beliefs. Evie Korver fractures Sutton’s stiff reserve with glimpses of emotion, while Eddie Pattison’s Dan hints at a vein of vulnerability under their know-it-all assuredness. Director Kathryn Yate makes the most of the venue’s intimate space, and ensures time and space for Tambree’s observations to make their mark. It’s a poignant, provocative, quietly heartbreaking gem of a show.

David Kettle

Lioness ★★★

Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 23 August

Every woman who pulls on a strip to play football is a Lioness, according to this new solo play by its performer Kate Coulson, and not just the recent English Euro-winners who enjoy the official nickname. Her character Marnie Cole, a fictional goalkeeper for the real-life London City Lionesses, goes on to illustrate why that's the case, by playing out a sporting life which is as much about the off-field trials a male footballer will never experience as it is the pride, pressure and emotional onslaught of keeping things together on the pitch.

Coulson is constantly moving on a stage layered with green astroturf, in front of a goal frame which appears specially constructed to fit precisely this compact space. The effect of this and the strip she wears is to place Marnie within the identity of a footballer 24/7, even when a scene change takes us off the pitch and into, for example, her relationship with her dismissive professional footballer boyfriend or her day job as a PE teacher at a private school.

Marnie is played surly and businesslike by Coulson, but her pain at being dismissed or having to play on through an endometriosis flare-up feels convincing. There is no glory on the international stage for her, just the hard-fought satisfaction of staying in the game and competing.

David Pollock

I Was A German ★★★

Zoo Southside (Venue 82) until 24 August

Like many people in the run-up to Brexit, Clare Fraenkel was looking for a way to apply for a European passport. She could, of course, because her grandfather was German, a Jewish journalist who escaped Berlin in 1933. But this knowledge sparked an internal crisis: how could she apply for German citizenship when her grandfather had had his citizenship revoked on account of his Jewishness?

The focus of the play then shifts to her grandfather, Heinz Fraenkel, who counted the days of exile away from his native land, and later found himself interred as an enemy alien in the country where he had found asylum. He intended to return to Germany after the war, but, after numerous visits and extensive research, including an interview with a former SS man in a POW camp in Wales, he decided to renounce his country for good and wrote a book detailing his reasons.

Clare works hard to find the drama in the story, playing herself, Heinz and a range of other characters, even performing an interlude of Weimar-style cabaret. But, ultimately, she has to tell more than show in order to communicate the complexities of this interesting but not especially theatrical story.

Susan Mansfield

An Ode to the Casting Director ★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 25 August

If you are an actor trying to get work, here’s a possible way forward: make a play for the Fringe about an actor trying to get work. In the sub-genre of Fringe shows about the difficulties of the acting profession, Sophie Fisher’s An Ode to the Casting Director is smarter and funnier than many.

Sophie never misses an audition, whether she’s being asked to be “orgasmic” while eating crisps, sliding down a rainbow for a kids’ commercial or just giving a blood-curdling scream. She’s relentlessly positive, holding on to the notion that she nailed the next step of her career, while encountering directors who think they’re Marlon Brando and casting directors who never fail to sound bored.

Fisher is a likeable performer who invites empathy without ever sounding sorry for herself, even when dumped by her boyfriend in the middle of a four-day wedding photoshoot. While her delivery rattles along a little too fast and too uniformly, she masters a range of tones, playing the ridiculous anecdotes for laughs while anchoring the more serious moments in authentic emotions.

Susan Mansfield

Sandbox: Saining ★★★

42 Dundas (Venue 473) until 22 August

At just 25 minutes in length, held in a basement studio on Edinburgh’s Dundas Street, Sandbox: Saining promises a refreshing and thought-provoking departure from the busy city centre. Created by local film/makers Kerry Mullaney and Kris Bird, the piece considers themes of memory, consciousness and subjectivity through a fusion of the ancient Scottish Rite and a near-future world.

The waiting room functions as a monument to the past, perhaps the infancy of time itself, as it teems with analogue paraphernalia like books and unblinking dolls. There is no computer technology to be seen, save the television on the wall (that we are soon guided to the other side of), showing a girl playing with her toys in woodland. There is snow on the ground, and as she animates her dolls, the saining (a Scots word for blessing) is invoked.

A contrasting and intimate cinema space offers a powerful audio-visual experience. Led by a faceless, synthetically intelligent narrator, images of trees in the wind, a girl in shallow water, a shadow in the half-light, and a shell on the sand, are made sinister over the deep, resonant soundtrack. The story itself may not be straightforward; however, the richness of the film experience is plenty.

Jospehine Balfour-Oatts

Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? ★★

ZOO Playground (Venue 186) until 24 August

Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? is notable for its inventive, brilliantly detailed animation reminiscent of Quentin Blake. There is little else to recommend this production, however, which is strangely upbeat given its angsty subject matter.

The protagonist, played by the Woodlouse (aka John Butler), valiantly navigates the sudden emergence of zombies and the politics of the undead, all whilst ventriloquising a 2D puppet, playing the ukulele, singing, and leading the audience in a series of sing-alongs. It is an admirable endeavour; unfortunately, these theatrical elements refuse to come together in any coherent or satisfying way.

Jospehine Balfour-Oatts