Edinburgh Fringe 2017
What if the Plane Falls out of the Sky?
Idiot Child
Genre: Comedy, New Writing
Venue: Pleasance Beneath
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Idiot Child grace the stage at the Pleasance Beneath by way of Bristol and London bringing us a wonder of joy, grief and buckets and buckets of fear.
Three siblings tackle their parental abandonment by forming Camp Fear, a safe space where you can tackle your crippling self loathing under the watchful eye of the omnipotent Jeff who may appear as a terrifying vision at any moment. Everyone is invited to this first open meeting, at least until their parents return, which should be in about an hour, or thereabouts.
Review
Usually the promise of a free drink is enough to draw me in to a Fringe performance but an alcoholic beverage AND mini chedders! They had me at mini.
I had no idea what to expend the as I wandered into the Pleasance Beneath spying a program and small airline sick bag waiting for me on my seat branded ‘Fear, Be Gone’. I presumed the contents would just be my aforementioned beverage but no, the contents were far,far more intriguing.
Heron, Magpie and Ferral Pigeon beckoned a bemused audience to our seats and welcomed us to the first meeting of Camp Fear with the slightly sinister promise of freeing us from our self doubt and self loathing.
What ensue was both hilarious, tear jerking, terrifying and mesmerising.
Susie Riddell’s Heron is masterful as she walks the fine line between physical theatre and obserdist clown. Recovering from being locked in a drawer for 8 years and being the matriarch of an obandoned family carrying all of her sibling’s hopes for the future on her shoulders.
Adam Fuller as Magpie delights in his Eeyore-esque performance as the brother with all the hormones of a rampant teenager and no outlet for his carnal desires running alongside an overwhelming fear of glitter.
But the standout performance has to go to Emma Keaveney-Roys who is outstanding as Ferral Pigeon. Her giant eyes encapsulate you in her loneliness as the youngest sibling who’s always left out with her story of the tiny pony leaving myself and many other members of the audience flitting from balling laughter to balling tears.
How long have they been alone in that house surviving off pork and digging their own graves?
As an audience member we were encouraged to embrace Camp Fear by drawing our darkest fears and taking away their power and breathing out our inner vile into the ether and setting it free. It is as empowering an experience as the Mojitos are delicious.
There wasn’t anything dramatic in the staging or lighting effects, you felt like you were in their home. But what the show could have lacked in technical tomfoolery was more than overshadowed by the musical numbers and dance routines with a nod to Laurie Anderson, one of my personal favourites.
We have all been there, with crazy irrational thoughts in our brains ‘What if how I feel about the world and myself at 4am is the truth?’ We have felt what they feel, we have allowed ourselves to be paralysed by fear. This trio of delights allows us to free ourselves, free ourselves in the delights of this magical and macarbe show. The funeral after the shark attack is particularly on point and cruelly clever.
I can only urge people to get tickets to this as soon as possible. If you have ever known fear then this is the show for you, just don’t volunteer to be the beanbag.
