Fringe Benefits 2016 - The Awards

Sherlockiana

Best Sherlock -  #3: Jasmine Atkins-Smart   ('Cute' Sherlock - 'Accidental Adventures of SH')
                         #2: Tom Wilkinson  ('Improvising' Sherlock - 'Improvised Adventures of SH')
                         #1: Rob Madge  ('Camp' Sherlock - 'Holmes For Rent')

Best Watson - #3: Thomas Parker  ('Perplexed' Watson - 'Accidental Adventures of SH')
                      #2: Lawrence Werber  ('Old' Watson - 'SH's Smarter Brother')
                      #1: Liam Nooney   ('David Walliams' Watson - 'H&W: The Farewell Tour')

Special Award - David Stuart-Davies in his tour-de-force one-man show, 'The Game's Afoot', 
covering the history of Holmes and Doyle.  


 Others

Best 'Magic' Show - #3: Kevin Quantum  ('Illuminations')
                              #2: Daniel Llewelyn-Williams   ('A Regular Little Houdini')
                              #1: Colin Cloud    (Expose)     
                               [A clear winner, if only for the final 'Hide and Seek' walk through Edinburgh]

Stand-up Comedy - Only managed to get to see Hal Cruttenden (Straight Outta Cruttenden)


2017 remains a distinct possibility, but may go for three days this time.
                       

Fringe Benefits 2016 - Day Two

A Regular Little Houdini (Flying Bridge Theatre)  [Pleasance 10 Dome]

Spoken word piece of a Welsh lad growing up wanting to ape his hero, Harry Houdini. But circumstances arise that are difficult to escape. A tour-de-force performance from Daniel Llewellyn-Williams, who also wrote the script based on a true story.

 

 

Improvised Adventures in Time and Space   (The Young Actors Company)  [Forest Theatre in Greenside @ Infirmary Street]

Improvised WHO by a young cast. Possibly not enough Doctor and companion (whose name never seemed to mentioned. Superb title sequence recreation though.    

 

 

Adventures of the Improvised Sherlock Holmes   (Ghostwriters)  [Just the Tonic at The Community Project

Improvised Sherlock #2. Narrowly beaten into second place, despite having the better Holmes  (Tom Wilkinson), ably assisted by Watson (Tom Skelton). I saw the same pair playing the opposite roles the previous year.  

 

Kevin Quantum: Illuminations   (Kevin Quantum)  [Debating Hall in Gilded Balloon Teviot]

Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection.  Magician Quantum plays with light and water, before creating rainbows using sand.  The finale aside, had seen all tricks before, some the previous evening  

The Game's Afoot   (David Stuart Davies) [The Arthur Conan Doyle Centre]

A return trip to DSD's one-man history of Holmes & Doyle. Just as good a year later    (and he signed 2 more books for me!) 

 

Holmes & Watson: The Farewell Tour (David Adkin Productions)   [Space 2 in theSpace on the Mile]

Prior to Holmes' retirement, Holmes (Adrian Banks) and Watson (Liam Nooney, channelling David Walliams) act out one of their most perplexing cases without their usual supporting artists. Very funny with canonical touches. 

 

 

Straight Outta Cruttenden   (Hal Cruttenden)  [Forth in Pleasance Courtyard]

Very funny midlife anger from the second most camp straight man that I know.  His increasing frustration at people walking across the performance area was a  delight to behold. 

 


Awards to follow.

Fringe Benefits 2016 - Day One

The Accidental Adventures of Sherlock Holmes   (Tobacco Tea Theatre Company)  [C Venue 34] 

Classic fringe - a female cutely petite Holmes  (Jasmine Atkins-Smart with drawn-on facial hair) and the female roles played by a man. Watson (Thomas Parker) is a Bertie Woosteresque character whose plans to keep Holmes amused are hijacked in suitably comic fashion.

 

Holmes for Rent   (Music Theatre Warwick)  [C Venue 34] 

A Sherlock Holmes Musical which is one part 'Without a Clue', and one part Broadway, as the actor playing Holmes - Richard Brook [a 'Sherlock' joke] (Rob Madge) must rise to the level of his employer, Watson (Ollie Yeats-Brown) to save his friend and the country. 

Spontaneous Sherlock (Spontaneous Sherlock)    [La Belle Angelle]

Improvised Sherlock # 1. Title chosen at random from audience suggestions was 'The case of the Frog's Waistcoat'. Sam Irving, Will Naameh & Eric Geisenfeld took this and ran with it, with Naameh's Watson's effect on Irving's Holmes being a highlight. 60 minutes of manic laughter from me. 

 

 

Colin Cloud: Exposé   (Colin Cloud)  [Cow Barn in Underbelly Med Quad]  

An amazing display from the self-termed 'real Sherlock Holmes'. 60 minutes of amazing deductions about the thoughts and secrets of audience members, ending with a game of 'hide and seek' through the streets of Edinburgh (with at least half the audience following) to find the antidote to a poison that he had injected himself with, topped off with a coup de theatre that we all promised not to reveal. 

 

 

Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother in the Case of a Study in Blood (Picture + Sound) [Create Theatre in Spotlites]

Holmes is missing and it's up to his American half-brother (make that half-brutha) to find him. An excellent modern day 'Holmes' (Writer Matt Boatright-Simon) with excellent support from Watson (Lawrence Werner), Mycroft (an exquisite Tim Charles) and Lestrade (Michael Fenton Stevens moonlighting from 'Radio Active' also at the Fringe). 

Fringe Benefits 2016 - Introduction

Last year I made a last minute decision to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to see Phil Jupitus and Alan Cox in a play about Conan Doyle & Houdini, as well as several Sherlockian fringe shows (and 'The Cat in the Hat'!). This year I sought out the Fringe programme, and finding more Sherlockian shows, decided to make a return.

Over the next 2 days I am booked to see 12 shows - a mixture of Sherlockiana, comedy and magic.

My intention is to post short reviews at the end of each day (and maybe my own Fringe awards).