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Show: Willie and Sebastian
Society: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot
Credits: Ian Pattison
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 08/08/2015
Willie and Sebastian
Chris Abbott | 09 Aug 2015 10:35am
Photo: Steve Ullathorne
There is an air of expectation as the audience enters the small auditorium; the audience are used to seeing entertainers Grant Stott and Andy Gray on bigger stages but this is quite different. The lights go down, and after some scene-setting from the impressive Michele Gallagher in a vital but inevitably subservient role, we await the arrival of Andy Gray as William Donaldson.
In a sudden flurry of movement, he erupts from the sofa where has been hidden since the audience arrived, and we are off on a one hour rollercoaster ride of fast-paced humour, dubious morals and supreme comic timing. Gray knows just how close to get to the front row (too close), his grubby Y-fronts at eye level as he engages those further back in dialogue.
Gray and his co-star, Grant Stott, are of course pantomime performers of great skill, and there is something of the panto about this play, in the repartee with the audience and in the essential theatricality of the performances. Stott plays much more against his co-star than with the audience, but is just as effective and skilled in his timing and ability to sketch character.
Ian Pattison is vastly experienced at writing for performers like these, and they have been deftly directed by Sam Kane to ensure that every line hits its mark.
The story is essentially one of decline of course, with Willie Donaldson and Sebastian Horsley, played by Stott, crack addicts and yet hopeless romantics. The contrast between the sleazy, grubby Donaldson, eventually dying with his trousers round his ankles while watching porn, and the immaculate Horsley, reformed addict who was sadly unable to stay off the drugs, is dramatically engaging, and we learn more about them through their interactions with Rachel, friend of them both.
It is apt that the play is premiering at Edinburgh since Donaldson was the original co-promoter of Beyond the Fringe; and Willie and Sebastian is an excellent example of how to achieve the difficult trick of writing and performing a satisfactory one-hour play.
- : admin
- : 08/08/2015