Fringe theatre reviews: Do You Accept These Charges | Erica Plays Mr Wadigger

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 60) until 24 August

Fast-talking Californian Laurie Magers loves a “bad boy” – so bad that he’s in prison for assault with a deadly weapon. Having sex as soon as possible “because I’m a feminist”, as she repeatedly says, this is the real-life story of a gregarious, sparkly eyed and defiant bisexual Filipino-American who is certainly not a victim but becomes embroiled with a man who seems keen to turn her into one, back in 2014 all while wearing her era-appropriate owl necklace.

Magers’ comic, uncompromising writing cleverly conceals its intent before slashing through what we’ve been led to believe with some great twists to explore the psyche of a woman who’s actively driving on an increasingly unsettling relationship to achieve her own needs, mainly for sex and drama.

Is it because she’s seeking approval from her stoic political activist mother, a “love addiction” or some excellent theatre school training that left an appetite for a classic story of romance over adversity? It's something that prisoner Evan -- through his long letters – at one point also feels like he might have been captured by. Or maybe he's just saying these things to get things. Through Magers’ swirling narration and excitable energy, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the fantasy-reality of it all, much of which is kept ambiguous until the very end.

A sharp storyteller and comedian parodying herself and her desires -- from childhood to adulthood -- with great honesty, she also introduces us to orange Meghan, the other woman in Evan’s life, along with his mother Brenda and the weird world of prison, simultaneously banal and intriguing, including some surreally sequences involving a sexy cat, fridge and security monitoring. When it “hot” simply violent? How can a person who is a “nightmare for myself” best manage their love of danger and drama? It’s a piece that doesn’t answer these questions and a final new partnership with a better man feels a somewhat easy conclusion to what is nevertheless a provocative, funny and fabulous show.

Sally Stott

Erica Plays Mr Wadigger ★★★

theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) until 16 August

Erica Plays Mr Wadigger could be the lovechild of Noises Off and The Play That Goes Wrong. In this campy split-stage confection, the cast of a period theatre piece discover that their lead actor is unable to perform, and just as the curtain goes up, they are tasked with pulling off a five-person play with only four actors.

“Who’s going to be the Big Man?” they panic. The divide between ‘backstage’ and ‘onstage’ is navigated with expert comic timing here, as the cast signals the situation to one another from the wings. The chaos continues, with characters disappearing, reappearing, and changing, sometimes mid-scene. In quieter moments, we hear snatches of idle chatter from the dressing room: “Would you rather have hands for nipples or nipples for hands?”

A hip-hop dance routine featuring Big Man’s ghost is particularly entertaining (it is worth buying a ticket for this scene alone), and (mostly intimate, sometimes platonic) relationships between cast members are emotionally manipulative yet keenly self-aware. The white face paint and twirling kohl moustache identifying the ghost and butler characters respectively are as messy as the cast dynamic itself. Smeared across faces, the paint leaves traces, showing who has been with whom and when.

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

The Thistle and the Rose by Linda Gates ★★★

theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall (venue 53) until 16 August

Interestingly, this is not the only piece about Mary, Queen of Scots on in Edinburgh this week, with the Scottish Ballet's production premiering at the Edinburgh International Festival. Her turbulent life continues to inspire artists to create new works, underscoring our enduring fascination with her as a historical and cultural figure.

Linda Gates’ play begins with a seemingly innocent pair of elderly women meeting at Westminster Abbey, discussing the history surrounding them. Quickly, they transform into Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, shedding coats to reveal their regal identities.

Marion Sybil Lines as Mary and Linda Gates as Elizabeth deliver convincing performances, dressed in gowns, ruffs, and jewels. Both are fine actors who bring weight and presence to these iconic figures.

The script brings together letters and poems exchanged between the two queens, capturing historical detail and genuine emotion without missing a beat. Their complex relationship, constant power struggles, politics, and rivalry are all explored. Additional letters between other figures from their lives – particularly Mary’s love interests - help develop the story and give another flavour of their characters.

The production is dialogue-heavy and spans decades in mere minutes, requiring sharp concentration. With little to break up the verbal flow beyond tonal shifts, it can be demanding. While not essential, some prior knowledge of the history is helpful.

Suzanne O'Brien

Relaxing and Balancing – Yin Yang ★★★

Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152) until 16 August

Making not just their Edinburgh debut with their first performance this week, but also their stage debut as a theatre company, Hong Kong company On/Off Theatre present a gorgeously evocative – although sometimes unsettling – portrait of the Chinese concept of Yin and Yang brought to life. There are three performers onstage at various points, and one man tangled up in balls of newsprint appears to be in distress.

He draws symbols on sheets of paper on the floor and then beats them ritually with a sandal, all the while shouting his frustration, while street noise honks in the background. Later, he finds a sheaf of reeds and begins lightly thrashing himself with them, in an apparent exorcism of his troubles. Meanwhile, interludes featuring a female performer grow longer, as she calms the storm with contemplative singing bowl and tuning fork chimes, and another actor considers the sound and meaning of the waves.

Although there’s the sense of a journey being undertaken, it’s not really a narrative experience – more a piece of performance art which opens an enlightening window upon aspects of Chinese spiritualism. It also does exactly what it says on the label, ultimately relaxing and balancing its audience ahead of another hard Fringe day.

David Pollock

In His Own Image ★★

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until 16 August

In His Own Image uses doctoral research by its director, Ashley Brown, to create a play within a play that explores Scottish masculinity through the ages. Scottish theatre troupe, the Yesterday Men, warm up backstage as they ready themselves to perform. They enact various male historical and cultural figures (including Caesar, Napoleon, and Elvis Presley) who the audience glimpse as they make their entrances and exits.

Presumably, this setting is designed to accentuate the relationships shared by the cast (of course, they each have their own complexities and identities), but even so, we never quite make it below the surface.

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

Something Blue ★★

theSpace at Venue 45 (Venue 45) until 16 August

There’s a lot of great energy in this light-hearted comedy-drama-mystery about a wedding gone wrong after the bride disappears. The young company – students from Portobello High School – deliver their lines with a self-knowing, well-suited to the farce set-up, but a more consistent tone is needed for a piece that gets increasingly melodramatic as it also draws in characters from Hedda Gabler, Romeo and Juliet and Lorca’s Yerma.

Nevertheless, the friends and family filling the audience are loving playing the wedding guests with some nicely woven in audience participation. It’s a particularly fun Fringe moment when half of them end up on stage dancing the Gay Gordons with the cast.

Sally Stott

Static Lives ★★

theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) until 19 August

Although well-intentioned, this thuddingly earnest two-hander written and performed by Alex Braglewicz(((CORRECT))) and Luke Ward is crashingly dull. Ward plays Alex, a social media moderator who inadvertently witnesses a man kill himself on a livestream.

Disturbed by the lack of effect this has on him, he eventually reveals his concerns to his friend Ben (Braglewicz). Solidly performed but clunkily written, the play draws parallels with the emotional desensitisation everyone is at risk of simply by dint of watching the news.

Unfortunately, whether they’re trading laddish bantz or shouting their feelings at each other, Alex and Ben never convince as characters — merely cyphers. Some lively, loud dance sequences to club music break up the scenes but they add nothing other than a welcome respite from the dialogue.

Rory Ford