The Assembly Rooms

Aug 11-16, 18-30

22:30

*****

*****

In the middle of the multi-studded maelstrom of comedy that is the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, last night I found two true gemstones. The first was the salubrious, clipboard-usher’d lushness of the Assembly Rooms, opening itself to the grubby masses far from the darkling broom-cupboards of many an August venue. The second was The Man, whose social commentary is nothing short of astounding, a genuinely brilliant survey of these our modern times which cuts through the modern brainwash like a surf-skimming jetboat.

*****

Beneath the chandeliers of the Assembly Rooms, The Man transports us neatly to Hyde Park’s Speaker’s Corner, which since 1866 has given every person capable of speaking a chance to freely air their views in public – & boy does The Man take advantage. Spoiler alerts are kicking in here, & I don’t want to give away any of the material, for the conglomerated effect of his attacks on the modern ‘Kardashian’ Age, where Britain’s Got Talent is won by dogs, is an amazing experience. Although some of his material is decidedly dodgy, a delicate mixture of offensive subjects that even the hardest heart will be pricked by at some point, The Man somehow gets away with it & proceeds through his ‘case against’ with the liberty that his station at Speaker’s Corner dictates. FIVE STARS

*****

Reviewer : Damo Bullen