![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/3669_1565960919.jpg)
Show: The Letter
Society: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: Venue 23. Pleasance Dome - King Dome
Credits: Paolo Nani Teater
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 13/08/2019
The Letter
Chris Abbott | 16 Aug 2019 10:19am
This was my only mime show at the Fringe this year and what a performance it was. Paolo Nani is a vastly experienced clown who has been performing this show for many years and in more than forty countries. As a result, The Letter is as finely-tuned and skilled as any performance could be.
The basic premise is deceptively simple: a man enters, sits at a desk, pours and drinks a glass of wine, writes a letter, realises his pen is not working, and throws the letter away in disgust. The rest of the performance consists of that same scenario in 15 different contexts. So we see the same actions in reverse, or repetitiously or with increased vulgarity. Another time we see the scene as from a Western, a horror film or a silent movie, or by someone with no arms.
Such a description can give no indication of the growing delight among the audience as particular moments approach; the repetition – or attempted repetition – of the basic story is what makes the whole piece so effective in the performance by this immensely skilled performer. By the end of the hour the audience are in the palm of his hands – literally, as we clap instantly whenever he prompts us, and we delighted in the series of inventive false finishes at the end of the show.
Every now and then at a large event like the Fringe you discover a performer who is at the top of his game, and that is certainly the case with Paolo Nani. The Letter, honed over 1,600 performances, is a master-class in clowning – grab any seats that remain.
- : admin
- : 13/08/2019