Underbelly Cowgate

Aug 2-12/14-19/21-26 (20.00)

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At eight PM across Edinburgh during the Fringe, there must be thousands of performers strutting their stuff – none of whom, & I don’t say this lightly, are as absolutely f**king brilliant as Lewis Doherty. What the hell has he created!? Its as if he’s just completely invented the martial art of performance, & the only name I could think of as I sat with my jaw drooping to the floor all goggle-eyed was Ninjacting. Trust me his white dwarf is about to go supernova.

Clad all in black with a microphone taped to his cheek, he plunges into the seedy side of Shadowtown. Wolf is a cop trying to figure out what happened to his partner, & is the main of many characters Doherty creates to tell this classical noir tale, all accompanied by his own vocal sound-effects & top-notch physicality. Each of the myriad ‘actors’ are completely distinguishable; with different voices, eyes, body language, etc. It was phenomenal what he was doing. It wasn’t all about the characters, tho’, for the way he invoked a disused apartment block with coo-cooing & fluttering birds was pure art.

I really wanted to show audiences something that they never thought would be possible on stage. It’s an extremely ambitious show and it’s just me and a chair when you really look at the bare bones of it. I’m trying to draw a clear picture of what I want the audience to see and then they get to colour it in themselves.
Read the full interview

Lewis Doherty learnt his craft with the inimitable Laughing Stock, but he must have been to Mount Parnassus recently or something, because what he’s doing now is just so transcendentally pioneering. He’s got the wings of Hermes in his heels. From first moment to last, we were all transfixed. Ten minutes from the end I could actually feel the standing ovation coming, that’s something I have never felt before & a curious sensation indeed. All of a sudden he had stopp’d, & there was no ovation… for about four seconds, as everyone recovered from their trance… then of course all were upstanding in a rush of applause. Like lemmings we were approaching the cliff of appreciation, where we were all happy to fling ourselves at the mercy of Doherty’s oceanic talent.

Damo