Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life | The Bronze Boy + more

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 26 August

She thinks she’s a queen and, dressed as Elsa from Frozen, she’s literally on fire. This is what happens when fast-talking, human stick of dynamite Belles gets involved in a pyramid scheme of Princess Parties. Next, it’s upselling make-up. Soon it will be something else.

Writer and performer Emma-Louise Howell has created an explosive, immersive pastiche of ‘Get Rich Quick Girls’ and the online ‘brands’ (spoiler: scams) that target them within a metatheatrical network of products-inside-other-products, selling empty messages of emancipation as easily as vodka slimes. “You are stardust,” goes the messaging, “Coffee in one hand, zero fucks in the other.”  

Howell’s arresting writing slashes through the pulsating production design with its deconstructed set of screens and mirrors (Lulu Tam), lighting (Jack Hathaway and Martha Godfrey), sound (Holly Khan) and video design (Matt Powell), which, through Hetty Hodgson’s dynamic direction, capture the cacophony of commentors, pings and pop-ups that endless flow from its fragmented reality.

Like a 1980s arcade game, its innovating assault on the senses may well have not just those with accessibility needs reaching for the offered sunglasses, headphones and fidget toys. 

Inspired by her “badass” but penniless virtual friend Kenz, we travel with Belles on a psychedelic journey past online avatars with names like Pregnant Lady or Student Loan, navigating the perils of 404 codes, to “reclaim” a financial independence that she’s never actually had. The destination: ‘Conference’, and a chance to meet the shimmeringly sadist behind it all, Cam.

Power, fame, girlhood: Howell’s rattling, rollicking writing could make anyone ‘invest’ in a dream – but probably not the tech bros genuinely making money elsewhere. As Belles travels closer the dark heart of The Control Room, the unseen hierarchies of exploitation that riddle both the net and the world outside of it are not so much unravelled as revealed.  

Sally Stott

The Bronze Boy ★★★ Greenwise @ Riddles Court (Venue 16) until 24 August

There’s not many Thelma and Louise-style road trips at the Fringe. This theatrical version, tightly written by Nancy Hamada, tackles the theme of high-school shootings in America which, following the shocking stabbings of the young dancers in Southport, gives it extra pertinence.

However, here, rather than the awful riots we’ve seen in England, it’s art as opposed to violence that is used to address the tragedy.  

Fedelis Spector, mother of the murdered Jessie, is joined by his best-friend Taylor, an art major, and the commemorative bronze statue of Jesse that she’s made. As they travel to an exhibition she’s hosting, it feels like there’s something she’s being rather cagey about.

What evolves into a critique of the availability of guns in the US is also a refreshing intergenerational friendship story, in which a mother and someone else’s daughter’s touching, funny and lesser heard discussions are played out behind the wheel of a Range Rover. 

Hamada’s small-scale script with a big issue is smart and while it might not delve too deeply into America’s relationship with guns, it provides something more hopeful in contrast to the bleakness elsewhere: a well painted, funny and moving character journey, professionally performed by Nicole Greevy and August Kiss Fegley, that is authentically portrayed along with the endless America road. 

Sally Stott

Lost… Found ★★★

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 26 August

For most of his life, writer, actor and musician K. Lorrel Manning has struggled to survive being a survivor. This latest production from New York’s The Barrow Group is his reckoning with his past, particularly the spectre of childhood trauma, yet it begins so casually with Manning engaging the audience in small talk before laying his South Carolina scene.

The tone is affectionate and gently comic until he drops the bombshell of his horrific assault.

He is candid and calm in his recollection of the event that shadowed his life and of the battles with drinking, depression and suicidal thoughts which were to follow while not allowing these revelations to suck the oxygen out of the room. Instead, he focuses on the things that got him through – the support of his mother, his Christian faith and lifelong love of music through which he found his first girlfriend (Donna Summer) and God (Prince).

Manning is such a sweet, likeable and infectious presence that his story can hardly fail to absorb and affect. He presides with sensitive authority and drops the needle on some of his favourite records. Mostly, it’s good to hear that this lost boy has now been found.

Fiona Shepherd

How to Mate: The TED XXX Talk ★★★

Assembly Roxy (139) until 24 August

Armed with his trusty Lynx Africa, everyone’s favourite lads’ lad Steve Porters is back in town – and now that he’s mastered the art of flirting, it’s time to take things that step further.

In this evening of swaggering drag king entertainment, Steve leads his audience of ‘freshers’ through a quick ‘n’ easy guide to getting all the way to fourth base. 

Steve Porters, the drag alter-ego of Daisy Doris May, is surely soon to become a regular Fringe favourite. The majority of the audience, myself included, were returning having seen his 2023 show, and if the t-shirt sales after are anything to go by, Steve is already a bit of a cult icon.

It’s easy to see why: this backwards-cap wearing alpha male feminist perfectly straddles (naughty) the line between charming and cringeworthy, winking at audience members and flashing his abs.

This year’s sequel is not quite as much of a home run as last year’s How to Flirt – the TED talk format feels a little more forced, and the exploration of masculinity a little more tacked-on. Nonetheless, if you’re after a solid Fringe night out, Steve’s your man.

Katie Kirkpatrick

Jewels ★★★

Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue) until 14 August 

Aptly performed at The Caves - in a dark room with stone walls and no daylight - Tanwen Stokes’ debut play boldly explores medieval womanhood. The setting mirrors the confinement of the medieval anchoress Jules, whose journey we witness in the first few days of her isolation.

Stokes gives a committed performance and fully throws herself and her body into this physical role. While the explicit sexual content is not for the faint hearted and will not appeal to the masses, it adds depth to the story’s exploration of feminine desires and highlights the hypocrisy within the church that exists to the detriment of women.

The humour, especially through James McManus’ playful music including songs such as Queen’s I Want to Break Free and a cheeky adaptation of Girls Just Want to Have Fun to “Nuns just want to have fun”, adds lightness to what otherwise is quite full on.

Though undeniably naughty and sexually charged, the piece doesn’t shy away from more emotional moments, particularly when Tanwen graphically details a sexual assault, which is a little hard to watch.

Although it is set in the 1300s, the way it explores women’s relationships with their bodies, religious pressures and societal norms, will resonate with woman of today.

Suzanne O’Brien