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Buxton 2010: Reviews Archive

These are archived reviews from the Buxton Fringe in July 2010.  We keep archived reviews online as a courtesy to performers, and to help members of the public researching the history of a show.

In the summer, all eyes turn to the Edinburgh Fringe - but just before it kicks off in Scotland, one of the UK's best-known emerging Fringe Festivals takes place in the beautiful surroundings of the Peak District.  In 2010, FringeGuru's Richard Stamp made his first trip to the Buxton Fringe, and - as always - couldn't resist sharing his thoughts on the programme.



 
Review: Love And Other Magic Tricks
Published on Monday, 12 July 2010

I’ve been aware for a while that John van der Put is a highly-regarded stage magician; but like most of the festival crowd, I know him mainly as his alter ego “Piff The Magic Dragon”.  And while it’s one thing to be typecast, it’s quite another to be typecast as bad-tempered, scaly and green.  So I jumped at the chance to see van der Put in his alternative human form – together with fellow illusionist Maya Politaki.

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Review: Shakespeare's Guide To Women
Published on Monday, 12 July 2010

The Bard's in a spot of bother.  He thought he'd penned a winner with his draft of Twelfth Night - but Viola's got some issues with his plans.  Juliet's risen from her grave, Ophelia's rethinking her death by dunking, and Lady McDoogle - from the lesser-known of his Scottish plays - seems to be loose with a dagger.  What else could possibly go wrong?

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Review: Misdirected
Published on Monday, 12 July 2010

High Jinx – otherwise known as Michael and Siobhan Jordan – were award-winners at last year’s Buxton Fringe, so there’s much to anticipate in their magic show, Misdirected.  And I didn’t leave disappointed; it may not have the flashiest illusions or the slickest script, but their plain-and-simple double act is big on easy charm.

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Review: 454 Grams
Published on Monday, 12 July 2010

I’ll start this review with a warning.  At one point late on in this play, a famous scene from Shakespeare is acted out a by mime with no trousers... and a woman holding brightly-coloured helium balloons.  If that’s just not something you’re prepared to accept, you might as well move on; but if it sounds like it might be intriguing, then let me explain.

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Review: Cupcakes
Published on Sunday, 11 July 2010

It’s great to see so many visiting performers in town, but it’s even nicer to catch up with something made in Buxton.  Cupcakes is written by local authors and performed by local actors, and its very backdrop seems calculated to make us feel at home; all the action takes place in Marvellous Morsels, the type of pretty small-town café redolent of a lazy afternoon.

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Review: Green Eggs And Hamlet
Published on Sunday, 11 July 2010

It's hard to dislike a show whose programme entry warns "Contains crass treatment of Shakespeare", and there's a part of me - OK, a big part - which finds Green Eggs And Hamlet a truly inspired idea.  Recasting a deathless classic in the narrative style of Dr Seuss? I'm almost sold.

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Review: J and C
Published on Saturday, 10 July 2010

Ah, the joy of youth.  It’s what gives you the chutzpah to do a show like this one: cheerfully intellectual, perplexingly self-referential, stuffed with philosophical musings and still, somehow, contriving to make an audience laugh.  It’s a tall order, and they couldn’t quite sustain the heights for a full 60 minutes – but at its finest, it was among the best new works I’ve seen this year.

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Review: Helen Keen - It Is Rocket Science!
Published on Saturday, 10 July 2010

Is There Life On Mars? enquired David Bowie, welcoming me back into Underground Venues for my second show of the day.  Unsurprisingly, Helen Keen’s witty stand-up act didn’t answer that question – but it was packed full of informative space oddities, describing an entertaining orbit around the early days of rocketry and Man’s voyage to the Moon.

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Review: Hayden Cohen's Rantings of a Young Fool
Published on Saturday, 10 July 2010

I feared for Hayden Cohen as he strode onto the stage: fully a third of his small audience were brandishing notebooks, the telltale sign of someone poised to review.  But the show, I’m pleased to say, very much went on, with a confident performance that soon got me tapping my toes and even singing along.

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FROM OUR ARCHIVES

These are archived reviews of shows from Buxton 2010.  We keep our archives online as a courtesy to performers, and for readers who'd like to research previous years' reviews.