Edinburgh Fringe 2023 – Reviews #2
by Brian Merriman

Today, Brian finds a few more gems at the Edinburgh Fringe; ‘The Rotting Hart’, ‘Guilty of Love’, and ‘Diana: the Untold and Untrue Story’.

The Rotting Hart
Produced by Crested Fools in collaboration with Fronteiras Theatre Lab
Written and performed by Daniel Orejon
Directed by Flavia D’Avila

The Scottish Storytelling Centre – Time: 7.30pm – Duration: 60 minutes

The Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh not only has enviable facilities but during the Fringe, it programmes diverse storytelling theatre. ‘The Rotting Hart’ with its stag image, is not a Scottish tale, but a macabre story from Spain. Written and performed with great skill by Daniel Orejon, mostly in English. The year could be any he tells us from 693 to 2005, but it is definitely posited in our more medieval imagination.

An illiterate young man has lived with his father in a remote region, in the shadows of an abandoned monastery that is full of secrets. A young stranger (Diego) comes to the door and is welcomed in by the Father and their lives change, stories unfold, dark happenings occur and transformations between the hunted animal and the ignorant human unfurl.

Orejon is a fine storyteller. His capacity to create characters is powerful, he draws you in with a performance and a plot that makes you wish more would engage with real story-telling in these modern times. D’Avila’s direction is in harmony with the text and it helps us move from empathy to chilling effect, allowing our own imaginations to add to the wonders conjured up in the passionately delivered text.

The role of Diego is familiar in some Irish folk tales of the visitor who changes into something else. We are given (a very small print) handout to translate the few passages in Spanish, which mainly outlaw homosexual acts over the centuries from the 7th century through to the Middle Ages to the modern day.

The graphic imagery of man as hunter, prey and sacrifice is told with great impact and effect in a story that leaves you thinking and imagining what lives were like then and how they resonate today. This is a tale of isolation and encounter, finely portrayed, that left all in the audience a little unsettled but well impressed. An accomplished collaboration of storytelling as it should be…gripping.

Guilty of Love

By Jane Bramwell and Michael Brand
Directed and Produced by David Kettle
Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh
Time 2.10pm – Duration 90 minutes

Photograph by Andrew Morris

Alan Turing, one of the most wronged men, undone by the UK’s notorious 1885 Offences Against the Person Act, is the centre of this wonderful musical play. With a musical nod in places, to the construction of ‘A Little Night Music’ with its fine use of a Greek Chorus and some Gilbert & Sullivan patter, this story is a moving tribute to a man who helped end World War II with his work on cracking codes and inventing computers.

Jamie Sheasby steals your heart with his portrayal of Turing and all his complexities and integrity. He is a fine singer and never falters in expressing the difference that endears him to an audience. This thoughtful plotline does terrific justice to the schoolboy love story that sustained Turing throughout his life. No one knows if a first love lasts, but Head boy ‘Christopher Morcom’ gets his voice beautifully here in this plot with a lovely portrayal by Andrew Hornyak, who also doubles up with a scored narrative, equivalencing the experience of another misunderstood man 2000 years ago.

The staging is somewhat static, with characters being positioned to convey their next scene, and the placing in the Courtroom scene did not work well. The Greek chorus which also plays a multitude of characters is a powerful and reliable presence throughout. The strong score, beautifully arranged is delivered with tuneful clarity by six players Caitlin Downie, Alasdair Baker, Helene Holman, Rhys Anderson, Joanna Harte and Steven Wren, proving as always it is quality and not quantity that does the greatest justice to good music.

Justice is of course absent from the Turing story. We meet many good people along the way, who were ahead of their time in understanding the genius of difference and difference in love. Mrs Morcom, The Commander, The Defence Counsel and the one-time fiancée a beautifully sung Joan, all stand out at times, but as with every good musical, the ensemble work shines consistently throughout.

This is a fine modern piece of musical theatre that would behold any company of 8 talents to produce. Everyone has a real contribution to make and its unpeeling of the catastrophe of prejudice is calmly but firmly played out, with a sense of inevitability that heightens the ultimate loss.

Turing was a real hero, a hero of truth, a genius at numbers. The final ignominy in his story is that he was pardoned in recent years for his crimes. That in itself is another act of arrogance. In truth, it is he that needs to pardon the system which so cruelly turned its back on his genius and his humanity. If you don’t know the story, you will after seeing ‘Guilty of Love’. It is a beautiful musical construction of a true story, innovatively scored and performed with real style and authenticity. If Turing cannot pardon the system, he is greatly honoured in this musical homage – 90 minutes of the best of musical theatre.

Diana: the Untold and Untrue Story 

Pleasance Dome – Time: 4.30pm
Duration 60 minutes
Produced by Awkward Productions and Linus Karp (Diana)
Additional roles by Geri Allen (‘The Queen’) and Joseph Martin (‘Prince Charles’).

‘Diana’ is a romp through recent history and through all royal conventions. ‘Diana’ (Linus Karp), is guaranteed to be as you’ve never seen her before. She re-visits us from eternal life to tell her (untrue) side of the story that has gripped recent generations.

‘Diana’ is irreverent, and it takes no prisoners in its presentation of the UK’s Royal Family. This slick comic presentation of distorted facts has ‘Diana’ as the goodie and truly vilifies ‘Camilla’ as a violently handled puppet.

The show relies on heavy audience participation and is well constructed and delivered by surprisingly talented members of the packed audience. Nothing escapes the acerbic pen of these sharp comic observers.

We are spun through early childhood, courtship, the Royals, divorce, the gays and landmines. With well-tuned audiovisuals from a supporting royal cast, and fine-tuned audio-visual prompts for the audience roles, it’s a slick and entertaining comic tour de force.

A post-show tweet appealed for a person who could sew, to put the stuffing back into the ‘Camilla’ puppet, as she certainly was thrown around a lot, to the glee of the partisan audience.

Touring this autumn (including nights in Smock Alley) and probably not for the royalists this ‘Diana’ story certainly gets a right royal treatment!  Great fun.