Edinburgh Fringe Reviews: Music Plays

The concept of a ‘gig-play’ has probably been described as innovative by too many in the last couple of years to be deemed as such any longer, but here Jonas Vermeulen and Boris Vanseveren may stake that claim for themselves. The Great Downhill Journey of Little Tommy [★★★★☆] is the extraordinary creation of these Belgian friends: musicians exploring 'to what extent a concert could become a theatre performance and the other way around.'

The opening noise punk number is an indication this show may not be for everyone, but it is ablaze with irony. This brash beginning gives way to something subtle and self-aware; a sweet and totally absorbing tale of Little Tommy’s escape from home. The unsettling characters and places he encounters ‘on the outskirts’ are wildly original and created with vivid soundscapes, assisted by an excellent rhythm section and terrific technical and imaginative range, vocally and physically, culminating in Tommy’s arrival at the sea with a piece that sears, siren-like.

It is a magical rounding-off of the narrative, mapped throughout by line drawings behind a screen that are somehow not in keeping with the rest of the play – although, in many ways, the whole show plays in front of this backdrop like the graffiti of a schoolboy on a textbook; an elaborate, creative daydream. There is precision and wit, even in the playful surtitles, and utter commitment to this joyful show.

Brigitte Aphrodite’s show My Beautiful Black Dog [★★★☆☆], based on the performer’s experience of depression, is strangely just as joyous. This is a different gig-play altogether: deeply personal and honest, but again swamped with irony, which stops it falling into self-indulgence. The structure is erratic and the performance surreal, but the magnetic and likeable London singer sweeps it along with the help of Quiet Boy on the guitar. He turns out not to be so quiet, and is a neat foil for the main event; the pseudo-serious pair create the catchy (We’re Gonna) Pop This Party scene, a highlight hysterical in every sense. There are poignant moments too which make a little more sense of it all but really this is about sardonic fun in spite of everything. 'This is not a happy ending,' as the author and performer tells the audience, which has been on her side throughout. 'But it’s a hopeful one.'

Offering more musical hope are the Flanagan Collective in Fable [★★★☆☆], a folky narrative about J, a woman frustrated by her city life, who meets a Scottish man online, then promptly drops everything and heads north 'to where there used to be gods.' There are flashes of beauty in Alexander Wright’s subtly poetic script, not least a final verse eulogising earthly divinity, but the folklore seems a little unnatural and the criticisms of modern living a little patronising. There is energy and chemistry from the two actors; Jim Harbourne doubles as a musician, and his score is original and polished, but the music could be used to much greater, more driving effect. Without that, the production never gathers the momentum it promises. The lecture theatre venue is unhelpfully clinical but even a different space would not lend Fable the balshiness of My Beautiful Black Dog, and certainly not the vivid, imaginative mayhem of The Great Downhill Journey.

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The Great Downhill Journey of Little Tommy, Summerhall, 'til 30 Aug, 10.30pm, £10/£8

My Beautiful Black Dog, Underbelly Cowgate, run ended

Fable, Summerhall, 'til 30 Aug (not Mondays), 6.30pm, £11/£9