Fringe theatre reviews: Hame. Teeth. CLUB. | With the Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln + more

Hame. Teeth. CLUB. ★ ★ ★ ★

Underbelly Cowgate (Venue 61) until 30 August

The story told in Kari Hall’s new play Hame. Teeth. CLUB is an increasingly familiar one, in the post-#MeToo age. Yet all the same, for far too many women, the ending has not changed; and that quiet tragedy is beautifully captured in Kari Hall’s writing, and Rhiannon Lucy Bird’s solo performance.

The play’s central character is Morgan, a teenage good-time-girl in Midlothian who works in TK Maxx, and just loves to party at Dalkeith Miners’ Club on a Saturday night.

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Relationships among her group of school friends are more complex than they look, though; and while Morgan wrestles with heartbreak over the behaviour of the two-timing cool boy she fancies, one of her supposedly platonic male friends nurses different feelings towards her, which suddenly flare up one night when, medicating her broken heart with massive doses of pills and booze, and too far gone to know what she is doing, she accepts a lift home that will change her life.

The point of Hall’s forceful play lies in the extent to which Morgan’s whole former small-town community turns against and ostracises her, after she begins to recognise and name what has happened. By the time her rape case comes to court, she literally has no one left in her life but her ever supportive Mum, and a loyal gay male friend from across the road; and as so often happens in he-says-she-says cases, her attacker is acquitted, the judge and jury preferring his story – and the preservation of his future prospects – to anything she can say.

In the end, though, there is a glimmer of hope, in no less a place than Portobello beach; as Morgan and her Mum start to rebuild, strong in the knowledge that even though they lost in court, they still tried – for all women – to do the right thing. Joyce McMillan

With the Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln ★ ★ ★ ★

Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 29 August

Plays that directly address the politics of the Trump presidency are thin on the ground in Edinburgh this year, even in an official Festival programme dedicated to reflect on the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Here, though, is a bold attempt to confront the political force of Trumpism, in a thoughtful and effective play written and directed by Norway- based theatre-maker David Chocron. Over a brisk 55 minutes, actors Mark Coleman and Jason Nemor Harden play a furious Trump – facing election defeat at the hands of Joe Biden, in the early hours of 7 November 2020 – and a tall, distinguished looking man who arrives in the guise of a White House servant, bringing Trump’s obligatory supplies of Big Macs and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

It soon becomes clear, though, that this man is someone exceptional, an expert in and friend of the US Constitution who has come as some kind of guiding angel, to try to persuade the defeated President to concede defeat gracefully. And in the night, as the news channels begin to call Biden’s victory, the two wrestle both literally and metaphorically, the visitor all too aware of how the Constitution is open to abuse by seriously malign actors, Trump eager to reduce this issue like every other to a trial of strength between two men, in which he must emerge the winner.

The fact that the Lincoln figure is played here by a black actor adds a particular edge to the conflict, as Trump increasingly begins to allege electoral fraud in key states where black voters dominate. Towards the end, there is a glorious moment where the visitor persuadesTrump to try out a proper phone call of concession to Joe Biden, using a banana as a phone; but then, the worse demons of Trump’s character assert themselves again, and with his balcony cry dismissing the election as ‘stolen’, the conversations is over, for good. Joyce McMillan

Horrorshow ★ ★ ★

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 31 August

It looks like we’ve arrived at the point in time where nostalgia for the olden days of the 2000s is now officially hot property, into which milieu Nottingham-based DIY theatre company Chronic Insanity have stepped with Horrorshow, a play set during that decade at an unidentified music festival (although given that it’s set on the Isle of Wight, its likely inspiration should be obvious).

The play stars writer Doug Deans as Dan and Joe Matty as Ollie, a pair of wide-eyed, bucket-hatted teens who jump the fence into the festival, taking with them several thousand pounds’ worth of weed stolen from Dan’s mum’s thug boyfriend. Ollie’s family are moving to London and Dan plans to use the money to move with him, although his affection for his best friend isn’t entirely platonic.

Packed with heart and energy, the play itself is a quick, warm-hearted and very likeable coming-of-age-romp, which doesn’t break any moulds, but which will leave most older music lovers in particular looking fondly back to their youth. It’s the staging, however, which really brings it to life, with guitarist Deans, keyboard player Matty and drummer (and director and additional characters) Joe Strickland playing their own lively originals in a 2000s style. David Pollock

Henry VIII and his Groom ★ ★ ★

Paradise in the Vault (Venue 29) until 30 August

William Compton is Henry VIII’s Groom of the Stool, which is what the title suggests: wiper of the royal backside and assistant in all things lavatorial. In time, Compton also becomes an intimate confidant, trusted to advise the notoriously fickle monarch and keep his secrets: “What happens on the stool stays on the stool”.

This two-hander by Greg Winders of Cornwall-based OMF Theatre explores the complex relationship between the two men. Winders plays the King opposite Tony Bligh as Compton, tracing the rise and fall of their fortunes over a period of years (more clarity on the passing of time would be helpful).

The men converse in modern English, which at times feels anachronistic, and Bligh arguably should display greater deference, especially at first. However, there is poignancy in the way that the latrine becomes the one place the King can let out his frustrations and express his grief over the repeated miscarriages and still births.

The challenge the actors face is how to bring out these more serious aspects against the naturally comedic backdrop of what happens in a toilet. Susan Mansfield

READ MORE: Fringe theatre reviews: Sims Holland: Learning to Human | Clive + more

Meteors ★ ★ ★

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 31 August

Plays about grief can often struggle with exactly what to say, given the experience is such a personal one and isn't defined by linear, easily explainable emotions. Yet on the other hand, a text doesn't need to say a lot to allow someone who’s experienced grief to recognise that it knows exactly how they're feeling and what they're going through.

Both flipsides of this coin apply to Meteors, a solo play by young Australian writer and performer Melissa Pullinger, who draws on the death of her own mother from cancer when Pullinger was 20 to inform the story and the emotional truth of the piece. It feels not entirely like a story is being told at all, in fact, more that Pullinger’s structuring her own memories and feelings of her mum’s death and its aftermath for us.

It helps that, under the direction of Connor Reidy, her performance is really magnificent, a soft, soothing presence which spikes at moments of anguish or anger, welcoming us right into the heart of her journey. Beauty and humour are scattered throughout; her resonant memories of the sound of her mum’s jewellery; sessions with her grief counsellor Simon (“Danny DeVito in a cardigan”); the innumerable “grief lasagnas” brought round by well-meaning friends; the moments of existential reverie brought about by witnessing a meteor shower. Those who have been there will feel it all with her. David Pollock

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