Shakespeare for Breakfast
★★★★☆ Feelgood start
C Arts, C Venues, C Aurora (Venue 6): Wed 31 – Sun 25 Aug 2024
Review by Florence Cruickshanks
This is the 32nd year that C Theatre has staged Shakespeare for Breakfast at the Fringe with its offer of early morning coffee, croissant and an irreverent hit of the bard.
Add a new script every year from a different cast, the company has no problems in filling a hall at 10am every morning for the full run of the Fringe. Although even devoted followers to what happens on stage might admit that the coffee and croissants are an added inducement.
Clare Louise Robert, David Virgo and Flora Ashton. Pic: C Theatres.
This year’s offering is an adaptation of The Tempest, with frequent comical references to and quotations from other plays by Shakespeare. The setting is the University of A Remote Island, with much of the plot focused on the establishment’s Drama Society, which has a membership of two. (A production of Waiting for Godot is planned.)
Clare Louise Robert plays Prospero, the President of the society. Lacking the magical powers of her namesake, she is constantly frustrated in her attempts to exercise her authority over others.
David Virgo and Flora Ashton are well matched as Ferdinand and Miranda, whose amorous plans are constantly being thwarted by Prospero, and also as Trinculo and Stephano, the sole members of the Society.
complicated
Ariel is played by Katie Gourlay, with Flossy Fox completing the cast in the dual roles of Caliban, much less of a monster than the original, and Alonso, whose contribution is too complicated to explain here. All demonstrate an admirable sense of comic timing.
The direction, by Mary Jensik, is excellent, with the action moving smoothly despite the comic interventions which threaten to derail it throughout, and the set, as one might expect, is simple but effective, with hand held signs and balloons appearing from the wings as appropriate.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval)
C Aurora (Main House), Lauriston Halls, 28 Lauriston Street EH3 9DJ (Venue 6)
Wednesday 31 July – Sunday 25 August 2024
Daily (not Mon 12): 10am
Details and tickets: Book here (includes coffee and croissant).
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ENDS
