Edinburgh Fringe - Inside

Last night we went to see Inside (Zoo Roxy - 18:25), described as physical dance theatre revolving around themes of violence and incarceration within the prison system, the production sees 5 male dancers tell their story on stage.

You might think that this doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd be interested in ... you'd be right, if not for the fact that the whole thing has a live musical accompaniment by none other than 65daysofstatic.

I have to admit, the dancing didn't really interest me and I didn't have a clue what was going on for the most part, but 65dos sounded amazing and it was worth going to see just for that.

Overall 3/5

Lords and Ladies - Edinburgh Fringe

On Saturday, Rosie and I treated my parents and Neil and Gwen to a showing of Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies which was being staged as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show was put on by Southampton University Students' Union Theatre Group and is on at the C-venue on Chambers street.

As a family of Terry Pratchett fans, it made for a good day out. The plot sees Lancre Witches Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax dealing with an elf invasion in the run up to Magrat's wedding on Midsummer's Day.

There was absolutely no set decoration, with the cast relying on props and their acting along with the audience's imagination to create the settings for the scenes as required. This worked out quite well, especially if you've read the book and are familiar with the characters.

All the cast were excellent in their roles (various cast members were playing more than one), me only criticism would be that the two main witches were a bit young looking (Understandable since this was a Student Theatre Company) and the actor playing Nanny Ogg seemed to rush her lines a little bit (Again, cramming the book into the time can't have been easy).

Overall, a good rendition of Terry Pratchett's book. A testament to the cast as well as the author. I would however recommend this more to people familiar with the source material.

Score: 4/5

Dan Antopolski

What with it being the Edinburgh Festival and all, we decided to take up a recommendation from a friend and go to see stand up comedian Dan Antopolski at the "Pleasance Dome" aka Potterrow.

His brand of geeky-humour, mixed with some more offensive stuff made for an act which was pretty funny although falling short of hilarious. His comedy rap segments are reminiscent of a one man GLC and you can't beat a bit of humour related to some kind of obscure chart.

Overall, if I had to give his show a rating it would be 7/10, pretty funny but not unmissable.