Edinburgh Fringe: The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: Boo Lingerie – Gilded Balloon Teviot
Writer/Performer: Kev F. SutherlandReviewer: Selwyn Knight
The Public Reviews Rating:
Formed in 2005 as part of The Sitcom Trials in London, Aberdeen-born Kev F. Sutherland’s Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre has been touring and entertaining ever since, winning the Edinburgh Festival Insider Comedy Award in 2009. This year’s offering, Boo Lingerie, is ostensibly a recreation of horror stories, although very little horror actually takes place.
The stage consists of a tartan Punch and Judy-style puppet theatre. The title is somewhat self-explanatory: two sock puppets speak in falsetto voices, argue, respond to the audience, sing, change clothes with incredible rapidity and generally entertain the audience. This is genuine laugh out loud comedy from start to finish, and not just because a room full of adults watching socks is ridiculous by its nature …
What makes this work really well is the lightning fast reactions of Sutherland. So when an audience member suggests “dinosaurs” as a potential example of the horror genre, later qualifying this to Jurassic Park, he is able to use existing props to deliver a great joke. The short segment on Burke and Hare works slightly less well, however. The difficulties of such puppets in manipulating objects are embraced as part of the comedic whole, for example, as they attempt to play instruments getting us firmly on Sutherland’s side. The songs are inventive and enjoyable. The eventual denouement, a re-enactment of Jekyll and Hyde, is hilarious and entertaining, if not entirely faithful to Stephenson’s original.
This late night show, despite consisting of sock puppets, is no children’s show (although Sutherland does have a children’s show at the Fringe too). It’s really very silly, but also an absolute hoot from start to finish.
Runs until 26 August 2012
"An absolute hoot from start to finish" ★★★★ 4 Stars The Public Reviews on Boo Lingerie http://www.thepublicreviews.com/edinburgh-fringe-the-scottish-falsetto-sock-puppet-theatre-boo-lingerie-gilded-balloon-teviot/ Yee-hah!
No comments:
Post a Comment