Edinburgh Fringe 2024

Disco, Baby?

Acting Speaks Louder

Genre: Musical Theatre, New Writing

Venue: theSpace on the Mile

Festival: Edinburgh Fringe

Low Down

Review

Growing up whilst remaining reasonably sane and solvent is becoming an increasing challenge in many 21st century societies.  It’s difficult to focus on the now as well as keep an eye of what’s coming in the future, all the while trying to reconcile what you want to be with who you really are.

All of this and more is addressed in Acting Speaks Louder’s outstanding Fringe debut show, Disco, Baby?  a forty minute tour de force featuring alternately sharp, witty and acidic reflections on teenage life.  Vera, Anna, Ella and Charles a preparing to say goodbye to the safe, comfortable world of school via the year eleven prom as they open the door to the rest of their respective lives.  But what if tonight turns out to be as good as it gets?

We’re in a typical party environment, with music, mood lighting and much mooching around, chilling to the sounds.  A place where those who want to look cool need to walk the tightrope of being fashionably late for the evening whilst avoiding falling foul of Fomo.   Come on, fear of missing out!  Try and stay with me.

Our story unfolds in a series of exquisitely choreographed tableaux, using every combination of the quartet of actors.  The cascading dialogue covers a full range of emotions and uses clever changes of pace, the actors switching effortlessly between the spotlight and the background in what is a continuous piece of theatre – no scene changes and barely any comings or goings.

Relationships are explored, gender identities questioned and examined and, whilst love is never far from many a teenager’s mind, does it always have to be this way?  Isn’t there validity and value in people having rewarding, platonic relationships?

And then there’s the music.  Oh, that music, a character in its own right and the one that nearly steals the show, as well as differentiating it from the many other pieces in its somewhat crowded genre.  Conceived and written by Ollie Hamilton, it’s ever present, never intrusive and always supportive.  Hamilton’s clearly someone who just “hears” music, composes by ear, never writes down a note and just remembers absolutely everything.  He provides jamming on keyboards to support most of the dialogue and uses a combination of backing tracks (which he also composed and recorded) and live accompaniment when the cast are providing us with a range of pop, funk, jazz and, naturally, some fantastic full-on disco ensemble numbers.

These set piece numbers are delivered with pitch perfect singing, and with the focus on getting the lyrics across as they’re a key part of the storyline.  A celebration of the character referred to only as “the boy” in the piece and his favourite record player is an exuberant tribute to the enduring appeal of vinyl.  There’s an excellent piece of rap delivered at pace without a syllable being lost.  Then the pace and emotions flip to a plea for some help from “Dear Future” which tugs at the heart strings whilst exposing the real dilemmas currently facing Gen Z and beyond through its deep, dark lyrics.

This is a captivating and outstanding piece of theatre, written and choreographed collaboratively.  It gets its central message across quickly and effectively through its superb script (which doesn’t waste a word).  The acting is top drawer, each character believable and consistently delivered, with the ensemble covering the full gamut of emotions.  The use of the very tight space is exemplary, using lines as well as a range of perfect geometric shapes , maintaining good sight lines at all times.  Whilst their acute attention to detail is evident throughout, it comes to the fore in the choreography executed during the set piece numbers as well as that within each scene.

Nuala Sankey’s co-directing and producing is spot-on.  Quite how she also found time to help write, act/sing and also fit in several bursts on bass guitar is beyond me.  Izzy Decent co-directed, acted and sang with alacrity whilst Bow Homhuan just stuck to the acting/singing bit as did Georgiana Balfour but both nonetheless produced equally impressive performances.  I’ve already waxed lyrical on the developing musical genius that is Ollie Hamilton but it’s only fair to point out that, monosyllabic though his verbal contributions were to the ongoing conversations, his sense of comic timing (and occasional inventive use of eyebrows) nailed it every time.

Acting Speaks Louder are a young, Cumbrian based company with, on the basis of this show, enormous potential in the performing arts arena.  They’re all still teenagers themselves which makes the maturity of what they’ve scripted, composed, compiled and then delivered at the Fringe even more creditable.

Let’s hope they’ve been sufficiently encouraged by the experience to pursue other ideas.  Disco, Baby? is definitely worth going a long way to see.  Which you’ll now have to as, sadly, I caught their final show of the Fringe run.  Still, Cumbria is just like as Edinburgh.  Wet.

Published August 25, 2024August 25, 2024 by Tim Wilcock