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Show: Parish Fete-ality: A Game of Scones
Society: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: C
Credits: Tobacco Tea Theatre Company
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 25/08/2016
Parish Fete-ality: A Game of Scones
Chris Abbott | 25 Aug 2016 21:35pm
Sometimes you have to go on title alone, and Parish Fete-ality, A Game of Scones sounded like it might be fun; a light-hearted romp perhaps. The flyer mentions satire however and dark forces; and indeed the play offered by the Tobacco Tea Theatre Company was not at all light-hearted. Pagans are taking over the countryside; the local aristocracy are all into incest and the National Trust are involved too.
The cast of five play multiple roles with minimal changes of accent and costume, leading to some difficulty for the audience who are trying to follow the story. Writer, director and indeed actors all remain anonymous; this was the only Fringe play I attended where no programme or cast list was available. I therefore checked the website of the company only to find the play not mentioned there, neither as a past nor current production, so no information could be found there either.
This may be just as well, since neither writing nor direction seemed to be successful on this occasion. The hard-working and more than competent actors kept plugging away at a mostly unfunny script which contained such outlandish plot developments that it called out for an unrealistic, madcap or cartoonish acting style. The two female actors did veer in this direction from time to time, with some success, but the rest of the cast seemed to have been asked to act in an extremely serious way as if the text they were delivering was entirely realistic. The result was, sadly, a comedy almost devoid of laughs.
- : admin
- : 25/08/2016