VL
★★★★☆ Huge energy
Roundabout @ Summerhall (Venue 26): Thu 1 – Mon 26 Aug 2024
Review by Hugh Simpson
VL, from Francesca Moody Productions, at Roundabout @ Summerhall throughout the Fringe, will delight anyone who has ever been a worried teenager. Or anyone who appreciates comedy.
Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair’s follow-up to the wrestling-themed Square Go features the same characters, Max (Scott Fletcher) and Stevie (Gavin Jon Wright). Instead of facing up to bullies physically, this time they are dreading being labelled VLs.
Scott Fletcher and Gavin Jon Wright. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
That stands for ‘virgin lips’, as in ‘never been kissed’ and it is the worst thing you can be called as the end of second year at Hammerston Academy looms. With the end of term comes the big dance at the ice rink – a last chance for winching, and avoiding the dreaded ‘ring of shame’ for the remaining VLs. Dressed in lurid banana-yellow tracksuits and trainers at the bus stop, the friends await their fate.
McNair and Hurley have come up with another beautifully comic script, full of energetic Scots, teen slang and huge laughs. The performances are suitably energetic and hugely humorous. Fletcher’s Max wants to be a nice guy, or even a cool guy, but he doesn’t know how. Even his attempts to ‘fly under the radar’ have come to nothing.
clever contrast
Wright’s Stevie is full of misplaced bravado and malapropisms. Wright also presents other characters – the rapping bully, the teachers. There is even a girl. You can tell it’s a girl, she’s got rollerblades and everything. There is a clever contrast between Fletcher’s more introspective performance and Wright’s bundle of energy, and the level of physical performance is just right for the space.
Gavin Jon Wright and Scott Fletcher. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
Orla O’Loughlin’s direction makes excellent use of that enclosed Roundabout setting. One litter bin (the only stage furniture) can rarely have been put to such good use. There is an energy and an immediacy to everything that threatens to whip the audience up into a frenzy at times.
There is a definite running-out-of-steam towards the end, but it remains a charming and compelling spectacle. And yes, there is a feeling that it is just more of the same, but it is still very welcome. Indeed, if McNair and Hurley are thinking in terms of a trilogy, nobody is going to mind.
Running time: One hour and 10 minutes (no interval)
Roundabout @ Summerhall, , 1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL (Venue 26)
Thursday 1 – Monday 26 August 2024
Daily (not Tues) at 8.10 pm
Details and tickets: Book here
Website: www.francescamoody.com
Facebook: @FMoodyProductions
Instagram: @francesca_moody_productions
X: @FMP_Theatre
ENDS
