Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Lobster Bisque
Brilliant at Breakfast
Genre: Farce, Puppetry, Slapstick Comedy
Venue: C Arts - 7 Victoria Terrace
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Lobster Bisque gives you so much to feast your eyes on: puppetry, tapestries of bourgeois despair and influences from the burlesque cabaret era! What is there not to love? Witt Tarantino and Emma Creaner have oodles of chemistry; so there is no surprise that they have trained and worked with each other before – bringing their artistry and complex, quick rapid changes to this hidden theatre off of Victoria Street. The costumes, puppets and staging are all made by this dynamite duo – Imagine Downtown Abbey meets Sesame Street – thrown on to the stage of a Cabaret Speakeasy for just us adults to enjoy. Lots of laughter, you will go away thinking – how did they fit all of that puppetry into one tiny space? Perhaps they borrowed Mary Poppin’s bag for Edinburgh Fringe, either way you will be hooked!
Review
As you enter the dark intimate theatre on Victoria Terrace, you wait in apprehension for a space that looks cluttered with unwanted antiques covered in white rags, scattered across the stage. What’s lurking under here we wonder? The puppets of the servants quarters of course! We love to see what the servants are making for their masters. Here you will be introduced to two puppets of glorious proportion, taking it in turns to develop the recipe that their Madame and Lord would literally die for – both crafted puppets are impressive here, simplistic in form, with simple features that interact with the pretend food beautifully; manoeuvred with playful rhythms of movement by the two puppeteers. No matter the older you get, the delights in the little things here are exquisite, how indeed were the onions chopped? The puppets did this of course! All in a days work.
But wait – There’s a problem of the greatest magnitude – Spoiler alert – The humble maid knocks a rather ‘large’ amount of toxic potion in her stew and has no time to amend this mishap before the timely bell rings, what will she do? Nothing of course! As the guests proceed to have a whale of a time, slowly the repercussions of this action is slowly revealed as one of the guests plunges to the floor! This moment was simply great timing of a wonderful farce, falling into chaos right before us, as the visual shock of her poisoning is shown beautifully through an interchangeable exchange of painted tapestries carefully illustrated by the design team – great touch.
This is an ambitious show and there is no denying the talents of this wonderful duo, morphing into different characters from the ball with props, shadow puppetry, enlarged heads and in their heightened physical form as the neighbours having an adulterous relationship – how very Bridgeton. At times the pace of this piece needs slight refining when the farce becomes interpreted through back and fourth dialogue between the different characters, however this is revisited later on in the story, greeting us with new intrigue when the pair use fans and rapid changing of choreographed movements to bring in quick witted humour and burlesque tricks that we love – this was a great addition, and rapidly picked up the pace. In places the ‘embodiment’ and focus of the puppets could be clearer, are we looking at the puppeteers or the puppets? Perhaps this was intentional for this was a play within a play narrative, and the ‘Big Heads’ definitely had wonderful impact.
There is no denying that Tarantino and Creaner are a entertaining duo – from small puppet stages to giant puppet heads, rustling in some shadow puppetry and quick costume changes to boot. You will not want to miss this hour of artistry, as Helen Bonham Carter said, “I think everything in life is art, what you do. How you dress,” and this is Tarantino and Creaner – they are art, and this transcends in to their beautiful tale of ‘Lobster Bisque.’ Go and see this innovative traditional farce of clown, puppetry, burlesque and so much more, you will not be disappointed!
