The Box at Assembly George Square
Until August 24th (18.25)
One gets the feeling that, of all the cultural events on the planet, the Fringes will continue perpetually. If, according to students of Zionist geopolitics, the world’s population is destin’d to end up scratting about in megacities, then the Fringes will surely become the cultural staples of them all.
In these, our modern times, I was wandering thro’ the temporary megacity that Edinburgh becomes each August, & saw a performer-woman clad in a strange horticultural head-dress, & knew that the spell of the Fringe had just caught me, & I just had to go see what this certain lady was up to.
“I’m not gay, I just love pockets – I keep the soul of my enemies in there”
I discover’d her to be the inimitable Kate Dolan, a real treasure of a comedienne, sporting a wide array of voices that fill her film-settish stories like a row of top-class showpeople. The most significant of those put-on voices seem’d to be the ‘producer’ of her show, a slice of robo-daemonic voice alteration who contributed a running commentary to the multiple doings & bobbinses.
“Come on then, give them a show…” says Kate’s evil avatar, & off we go thro’ a whirl of ‘alt-comedy,’ from a woman who knew how ‘intense’ she was. But look, she wasn’t that intense, & the comedy wasn’t a whole heap of curveball, but trust me, Kate was just damn entertaining – really good.
Kate possess this nervous tick-like, tho’ probably acutely polish’d way, of accompanying her catchphrases with set physical exertions, doubling or tripling their effect. As the show progress’d, Kate got a proper strut on, chucking in the odd slinky twirl. Among the always-interesting streams of material, the most unusual was the chainmail-email, in fully linking armour; while the cleverest was her giving the age of her (much) younger boyfriend (21 to her 27), in months – 252 to be precise.
I don’t want to feel like I’m not making an effort for you –
I’m not, but I don’t want you to feel that way
“You’re being weirder than ever!” hisses the ‘producer’, “& they’re not coming with you…” but we are, for sure, & are always gagging for more gags. Kate has a unique brilliance, & with youth on her side & a mind that like hers, there really seems like there will be no stopping the appearance of a Kate Dolan comedy a classic in the very near future.
Damo
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