Edinburgh Fringe 2015
Distinguished Gentlemen
Out Cast Theatre
Genre: Comedy, Fringe Theatre, Theatre
Venue: the Space on the Mile
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Burridge and Barrington both meet a young and handsome young man. Neighbours in the country they become rivals for this young man’s attentions. With much farce and many slutty jokes they eventually and accidentally dispose of their young blackmailer before they ride off into their own sunsets.
Review
This is never going to get an Arts Council grant, nor is it going to headline at the Festival Theatre but what it is, is funny. Last year they took The Importance of Being Earnest and played mercilessly with it. This year they have created their own storyline and it is fabulously filthy as a result.
All 3 performers give us great and hilarious double and often treble entendres, even stopping in the middle of a scene to argue about why words are being used as they seem archaic; the answer is blame the Regency. The knockabout humour is often relentless and the welcome at the beginning from the cast is fraught with the worry that they might pick on you; they don’t but have a neat line in put downs if people fancy their chances.
This has been honed over many years and gone through what would appear to be many metamorphoses. What we therefore get is slickly directed with the necessary pace to motor us towards laughter. That the storyline holds together is frequently due to good fortune as it is as ridiculous as the actions and reactions of our three characters.
Their set pieces involve a great deal of simulated sex as well as trying to get in and out of a bedroom whilst not being discovered. It leads to some funny results but perhaps the funniest set pieces are the verbal jousts on horseback accompanied by traditional coconuts and non traditional barbs.
This is a farce that works for its age though it is using the conventions of a forgotten time. This is possibly due to such things as Blackadder but whilst Baldrick and Blackadder came close to the knuckle, Outcast saw right through it. I skipped out afterwards, having had nearly an hour of excellent comedy. I hope they are coming back next year…
