Harriet Braine @ Laughing Horse, The Golf Tavern
An art history lesson that definitely won’t sing you to sleep
There’s nothing groundbreaking about rewriting popular songs to serve whatever purpose your Edinburgh show requires – some may even regard the idea as the height of hackiness. But in Harriet Braine’s skillful hands, there is nothing to be hacked at in her deft reworking of songs by Natalie Imbruglia and Dolly Parton to tell the stories of the greatest artists in history. And if there’s any justice, Braine's hour-long show will replace most of the art history curriculum in years to come.
Braine makes for an amiable and accessible host for this highbrow, low-concept hour, which ticks along with the ease of a music gig fronted by a particularly funny and charming singer. The subject material makes an old formula seem a little newer in spite of its historical content, and when Braine is in between tracks we see a natural comic who doesn't need to rely on the ‘five-string prop’ she uses so expertly. The song-break-song structure does become a little repetitive, but with Braine in control the hour breezes past.
If you fall in the centre of a Venn diagram of musical comedy fans and art history buffs, then you’re in for the time of your life.