Category: Edinburgh Fringe 2017

Pottervision

By Lisa Clark
Pottervision

PotterVision is pretty much what a fan wants from this sort of Festival show, a crowd pleasing comic enactment of several key scenes from Harry Potter & the Sorcerers Stone with gentle digs and silly hi-jinx.

The conceit of the show is not wildly original but cute and it works; that this performance was created by a quartet of players but 2 of them have buggered off with all the props and costumes leaving Lukas Kirkby & Tom Lawrinson to cope. They’ve popped out to the shops for some silly wigs & turned some sticks into wands and are doing the best they can. The packed audience is fully on-side and raring to go with them, just as well they are able to deliver.

Lukas and Tom make a good double act with Lukas is more of the organised straight guy trying to keep Tom from heading off the tracks onto his own loopy ideas of how to do the show. Tom is relaxed but also naughtily cunning in getting to do his own thing which gets some big laughs. They both have a lot of energy and commit fully to the show. They also clearly know The Sorcerer’s Stone novel backwards.
There is some gentle audience participation – I was invited on state to be sorted into Hufflepuff – some rude innuendo that never goes too far and a fabulous finale.

Yes it pokes fun at some of J K Rowing’s ideas but this does not denigrate the work or sneer at the fans in any way. It is pretty funny and you can take your teen Potterhead kids for a laugh.

Pottervision is on at Laughing Horse @ Espionage until August 27

This show is free (donation)

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/pottervision

Lucy Pearman – Maid of Cabbage

By Ron Bingham Maid of Cabbage

Maid of Cabbage is an entertaining and funny one-woman romp by Lucy Pearman. Unsurprisingly it is about the first day on the job for our country maid(en), who is set the task of locating the perfect cabbage. Sadly Lucy is not really competent to judge what a perfect cabbage looks like, and she has a dark side that keeps trying to break out and cause (comedy) chaos. Along the way, we meet the Lord of the manor, get shown a number of interesting vegetables, learn what happened to out maiden’s lost love and find out whether she can keep her job for a whole day.

There are a lot of props, a little puppetry, quite a bit of (non-threatening) audience participation, an excellent costume change and a lot of laughs. Lucy is engaging and entertaining, the story flows well, and there are very few breaks in the mayhem and jokes.

If you feel like seeing an excellently acted and very funny show, and aren’t afraid of the possibility of wearing a silly hat or holding a cabbage in your hand, then I can thoroughly recommend Maid of Cabbage.

Maid Of Cabbage is on at Heroes @ The Monkey Barrel until August 27.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/lucy-pearman-maid-of-cabbage
This show is free (donation)