Fringe theatre reviews: KEVIN!!!!! | Strange Face | I Bought a Flip Phone | 116 Grams | Man Or Bear + more

KEVIN!!!!! ★ ★ ★ ★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 31 August

Arriving at this year's Fringe with their third production in as many years, American company Recent Cutbacks have built a cult following for their ingenious DIY family shows recreating classic Hollywood films on a relative micro-budget, with the foley-based manner of their construction producing much of the comedy.

First there was Hold On to Your Butts, which spoofed Jurassic Park, then came Fly, You Fools!, a take on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Stepping up the punctuation count once again, this year comes KEVIN!!!!!, their version of 1990’s first instalment in the Home Alone series, which you might already have guessed if you've associated Catherine O’Hara’s titular scream with the moment in the film where her character realises the family have left their son on the other side of the Atlantic for the Christmas holidays.

In this production Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin is mostly performed by a cute, Muppet-like puppet, whose adventures both in ‘actual size’ and in miniature (through a series of model sets and backdrops), are projected onscreen by a small roving video camera. The effect is fun and inventive, as we might expect from Recent Cutbacks, with a cheeky running commentary within the text on the film’s tropes and plot failings, which is as affectionate as the physical scene-by-scene recreations.

Naturally the climactic, Tom-and-Jerry-violent chase scene around the house between Kevin and the Wet Bandits is the crescendo of the play, but there are so many ‘greatest hit’ scenes in Home Alone which are ripe for playful parody: the full house of bickering siblings at the start; Kevin’s menacing, spooky neighbour, glimpsed on the street from his window, and Kevin’s mum’s quest to get back home, performed live onscreen by actor Natalie Rich and a puppet adorned with pictures of John Candy’s super-expressive face.

Rich is joined by fellow actors Nick Abeel, Brandan Dalton and Rosa Palmeri, along with foley artist Richard Sears, who’s also blessed with a stunning falsetto for the seasonal song sequences. It’s yet another hit from a Fringe company which is proving it can do no wrong. David Pollock

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Strange Face: Adventures with a Lost Nick Drake Recording…The Story Continues ★ ★ ★ ★

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 31 August

Although listed in the theatre section of the Fringe programme, Strange Face is really an endearing illustrated talk, one which writer Michael Burdett has been telling for over a decade now with the same gentle passion. It is a tale worth repeating and certainly one worth experiencing for the first time, whether or not you are a fan of Nick Drake.

As a young underling at Island Records in the early 1970s, Burdett liberated some reel-to-reel tapes from a skip in order to do his own recording. One contained an alternative take of Drake’s exquisitely mournful Cello Song, which Burdett filed away for twenty years before undertaking an odd odyssey around mainland Britain, inviting strangers to listen to the song and capturing the (usually rapt, occasionally spiritual) moment in a photograph.

The people he met and the stories they told him form the backbone of this charming exploration of the power of music to move in the most diverse of circumstances. He later adopts a similar approach with an early ska recording by a teenage George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley; reactions are joyful. But there is something about the pensive nature of Drake’s work which draws out confessions and testimony from the listeners.

Ticking off every county and region, Burdett stumbles across some remarkable connections along the way. He is a man who collects coincidences and disappears down further rabbit holes as he presents a post-script to the original show. At this point, he seems a little too enamoured with the banal particulars of one fateful encounter, but the upshot is that another unheard Drake recording came to light when he first brought Strange Face to the Fringe in 2016. Then, as now, it is a show about the joy unleashed when you take time and invest in humanity. Fiona Shepherd

I Bought a Flip Phone ★ ★ ★

Zoo Playground (Venue 186) until 30 August

Charlie is a bright, chatty, engaging young guy in his late twenties, but there’s an anxiety bubbling away below the surface. In an effort to cure it he’s thrown away his iPhone and bought a turn-of-the-century vintage Nokia flip-phone instead, which allows basic communication but none of the angstful doomscrolling and pressure to be always online and contactable which a smartphone brings.

Yet was Charlie’s anxiety caused by his phone, or did the connection it offered actually bring soothing and comfort? His desire to be reachable is still there, but it’s not so easy to act upon it without the three dots of a messaging app to tell him whether his message has been read or is being replied to. While the physical distance between Charlie and his best friend Phoebe feels more tangible now, and he has no idea whether his prospective new boyfriend Tate is ghosting him or not, his mum is at least keen to get in contact. She’s worried.

Writer and solo performer Panos Kandunias is clear and charismatic, giving a rich sense of what it’s like to be a young man who’s lived all his life in an interconnected online world. His Charlie seems genuinely unsure whether the problem is this artificial network surrounding him or whether his problems are more deep-seated within himself. Kandunias reflects this uncertainty with wit and sensitivity. David Pollock

116 Grams: A Play to Lose Weight ★ ★ ★

Zoo Southside (Venue 82) until 30 August

When Letícia Rodrigues was a girl she wanted to be just like her idol Britney Spears or her Brazilian countrywoman, Victoria’s Secret model Gisele Bündchen, both of whom ruled the zeitgeist. Yet as she got older, she realised a significant obstacle stood in her way: society made her aware she wasn't the same size as Britney or Gisele. Quite the opposite, in fact.

A meditation both on perceptions of women’s bodies through the medium of 84kg Rodrigues's own physical stature, and a deep dive into the psyche of anyone who wants to lose a large amount of their body mass, 116 Grams takes the form of a series of vignettes rooted in her stated desire to lose that amount of weight during each show of her Fringe run.

The charismatic Rodrigues performs much of the piece entirely in the nude, which at first feels like a manifestation of her shame, but by the end allows performer and audience to share a sense of collective acceptance, even comfort. She boxes her anger out on an inflatable turkey and disappears into a haunting and evocative retelling of the Prometheus myth, focusing on his eternal torment of having his guts torn out anew every day.

Rodrigues always wanted to dance Swan Lake, and by the end she does so with unexpected grace and athleticism. While the piece could perhaps be more narratively knitted together than it is, the intermingled senses of anger and of hope it expresses are palpable. David Pollock

Man Or Bear ★ ★ ★

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 30 August

Fringe veteran Ursula Martinez directs this three-hander inspired by the viral debate around which poses the greater threat to women - man or bear? Paige has done a midnight flit with teenage daughter Angel, escaping partner Sam’s escalating controlling behaviour, while painfully aware of all the financial and emotional precarity that entails. Their life is boxed up around them, a symbol of their limbo.

But at least they have found temporary sanctuary and mutual support with widower Connie, who provides wise counsel as Paige tussles with her decision: “Even bad men do good things.” Meanwhile, Angel thinks she might have witnessed foul play involving schoolmates at a party and is ready to call it out.

The bears, when they appear, are cute, cuddly and funny, all the better to sucker audience members into doing exactly what they ask of them - coercive controllers in bear’s clothing. But the play is never in any doubt that Paige’s anxious vigilance is justified. Even caring Connie has her own reckoning with a judgmental fellow churchgoer, so that when a big bad beast finally comes knocking on their door, the tragedy is that any one of these courageous women could be the prey. Fiona Shepherd

READ MORE: Fringe theatre reviews: The End of the World + more

The Vampire of Rio ★ ★

Rotunda Theatre (Venue 65) until 23 August

Brazilian writer Tiago Santiago’s piece attempts to interrogate the crimes and psyche of Marcelo Costa de Adrade who murdered and sexually abused 14 boys in Rio in 1991. Brazilian-American actor Haysam Ali plays both de Adrade and the psychiatrist analysing him. It’s understandably grim stuff, illuminated by atmospheric technical backdrops but hindered by Ali’s performance, which doesn’t clearly characterise the two men. It’s further hampered by Ali’s unfortunate vocal fry and fondness for quiet — if rather mannered — naturalistic acting which make this, in pretty much every respect, a tough hour to sit through. Rory Ford

Follow Me ★ ★

theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) until 29 August

The darker side of parasocial relationships is explored at undue length in Ian Dunn’s new play as four superfans finally get to meet their pop idol. Initially, this sets up its characters quite well, but it’s notable that every scene goes on just a bit too long. This eventually reaches its nadir at the backstage meet-and-greet as every character suddenly stops acting like a recognisable human being. This then turns into an interminable hostage scenario so lacking in pace or dramatic interest that the audience could be forgiven for feeling that they were being held against their will. The cast do their best, but the script needs to be ruthlessly edited. Rory Ford

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