Fringe theatre reviews: In the Black | We Had Fun | A Public Display of Affection | The Last Mad Man | NON HUMAN ANIMAL | CVNTCLAVE | Hamlet: Prince of Sweden

THEATRE

In the Black ★★★★

Underbelly Bristo Square (Venue 302) until 31 August

An African-American man emerges in an orange prison jumpsuit. Writer and performer Quaz Degraft is more than aware of the lazy assumptions that a mainly white audience might make. And he goes on to challenge them - even, sometimes, confirm them - with sly wit, vivid storytelling and a convincing line in accents in this impressive solo show, which charts his young protagonist Kofi Grady’s attempts to establish himself in the world of New York high finance, and the compromises he makes in order to do so. And, of course, the story behind Kofi’s eventual incarceration.

In the Black seldom foregrounds its themes of race and culture, but it’s to Degraft’s credit that they’re never far from the surface. In the lofty expectations of his Ghanaian immigrant father, or in the glass ceiling his boss warns him exists for employees like him, for example. Or in the multiple identities he’s forced to navigate depending on who he’s with. Among those identities is the obedient new employee who turns a blind eye to the abuse he sees around him in the towering offices of big business, a conflict that goes on to form the meat of In the Black’s darkening storyline.

Degraft is a naturally captivating storyteller, nimbly switching characters and viewpoints to recount Kofi’s achievements and regrets with a winning mixture of pride and shame. What emerges is a gratifyingly complex picture of ambition and delusion, one in which race is an ever-present issue, and where determination has a high personal price. In the Black is a stripped-back, narrowly focused show, but Degraft has the charisma and insight to make us stay with and care about his flawed character even in his darkest moments. David Kettle

THEATRE

We Had Fun ★★★

Old Lab at Summerhall (Venue 26) until 31 August

A play that navigates the fraught arena of consent, memory and sexual politics, We Had Fun follows Oscar and Ela, two friends parsing a drunken sexual encounter they experienced differently. The cast of four – including Oscar and Ela’s quirky friends – make a great start at a quickfire pace, placing us directly in the thick of the issue. Ela (Emmeline Hartley) confronts Oscar (Jack Mullings) about “that” night, telling him he crossed a line.

What ensues is a back-and-forth interspersed by key moments from the night itself. Scene transitions shine here, as supporting cast Emma Houston and Tessa Redman take up the mantle of switching tones and timelines. However, Houston and Redman are, at times, employed in strange ways – including performing interpretive movements to retellings of the incident. A prolonged confrontation between Ela and Oscar in a lift is uncomfortable for the wrong reasons as Houston and Redman – though talented – distract from the tension at hand.

While commendable for exploring a difficult topic, We Had Fun does not quite stick the landing, and is, at times, grueling as we watch Ela plead her case to an Oscar intent on attacking her character. If that was the point, it’s not quite clear or convincing that it should be. Mika Morava

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THEATRE

A Public Display of Affection ★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 30 August

Less a piece of theatre, more an illustrated lecture, even a personal memoir, Jonathan Wilson’s thoughtful, at times nostalgic show mulls over his recollections of growing up gay in small-town Canada, then upping sticks to Toronto’s gay village, where he experiences boyfriends, beaches, clubs and hustlers, as well as illicit liaisons and vicious victimisation. As a so-called ‘queer elder’, he’s flattered to have been asked to represent his country’s gay past, but wary, too, that edges may be smoothed and trauma sidelined - and aware that what might today be called acceptance ignores the struggles of the past. There’s a sense of quiet indignation, even whispered anger behind Wilson’s loving evocations of boyfriend Tommy and trans icon Orchid, and about the address book he discarded since he’d struck through the names of so many friends lost to AIDS. But A Public Display of Affection is very far from a polemic. It’s tautly constructed, but Wilson’s subdued, unhurried delivery, with just a handful of photos for illustration, often makes the show feel as though he’s remembering spontaneously. The result is tender and thoughtful, but strangely anticlimactic too, and exploring the generational differences that Wilson mentions might have offered richer material. Nonetheless, as a window into gay lives in the 1970s, it’s a charming and memorable offering. David Kettle

THEATRE

The Last Mad Man ★★★

Assembly Roxy (Venue 139) until 30 August

Does the end of the world really need a copywriter? You bet it does, and Stephen’s just the guy for the job: after all, he’s devised the brand identity for oversize women’s vegan leather boots, and conceptualised queer wellness retreats that take the shame out of sex. All the apocalypse needs is a top-to-bottom rebrand and it’ll be all anyone’s ever wanted.

Stephen Phillips-Horst’s scabrous satire draws heavily on his own background as a former high-profile copywriter, and his ruthless expertise shows - in his merciless skewering of empty corporate values, and his faultlessly reptilian presentation skills, both demonstrated through a succession of horribly plausible rebranding PowerPoints. The framework for his show, it has to be said, is rather on the thin side: don’t devote too much energy to attempting to make sense of his apocalyptic plotline, which is really just an excuse for his acidic observations on corporate culture and the pursuit of the sale, whatever the cost. Prowling his office set like a caged animal, Phillips-Horst mixes edgy nerviness and snarling confidence, neatly capturing the emptiness behind all the marketing bluster. The Last Mad Man might be somewhat slight in its revelations, but its rancid humour hits its target beautifully. David Kettle

THEATRE

NON HUMAN ANIMAL ★★★

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) until 31 August

In Kat Woods’s new play, Roísín’s father was murdered, and his killer is now up for parole and wants to meet her, while her mother, in assisted living with fading memory, no longer recognises her. Roísín, who is AuDHD with a history of depression and suicidality, retreats into seasons of Gilmore Girls, comforted by Mars bars and takeaways. As a non-Troubles victim in Fermanagh, she notes how the system has treated her worse than it would have otherwise.

It’s a relaxed performance, house lights up throughout so the audience can come and go freely, staged with a spare set: a stool, a railing hung with an Instagram-filter, a dressing gown, TV posters – a fitting frame for a show whose story often outgrows its staging, and whose script can feel more suited to the page than performance.

Still, there’s much to admire: a GP phone queue staged as a horse race adds humour, a breakdown before a kind locum GP raises the irony of being over the BMI threshold for NHS-prescribed exercise, and murder bonds Roísín with her new personal trainer, who has done time himself. Their role-play of the restorative justice process successfully interrogates who restorative justice is really for. Josephine Balfour-Oatts

THEATRE

CVNTCLAVE ★★

Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 29 August

Billed as a “one-Cardinal-show” inspired by Conclave, “but queer(er),” CVNTCLAVE promises drama and psychosexual rivalry behind the Vatican’s locked doors. Arden Fitzroy, in red velvet as Cardinal Cvntvs, addresses us as fellow cardinals sworn to confidentiality, walking through the shortlist to succeed a dead pope. The irony of a stipend and free lodging undercutting a vow of poverty adds humour, as does a gag about an interfaith conference in Vegas. But movie quotes – a Mean Girls “on Sundays we wear red” among them – remain superficial, and the scandal we are promised is easy to miss, especially without the source material. Josephine Balfour-Oatts

THEATRE

Hamlet: Prince of Sweden ★★

Teatro Fisico (Venue 359) until 21 August

The title gives you a fair indication of the level of wit and invention on show in this production, a U.K. premiere, performed and devised by Tom Corradini and Nike Redding. It’s capably enough performed but the actors don’t do themselves any favours with a script that labours mightily to raise a smile, let alone a laugh, as they improvise a production of Shakespeare’s tragedy after an accident puts paid to the rest of the cast. There’s some half-decent puppetry but little else here that you wouldn’t expect from the well-worn premise and the Lecoq-style physical theatre aspect is curiously subdued. Rory Ford

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