Edinburgh Fringe 2017
F*ck Boys for Freedom
Pandorum Theatre Company
Genre: Comedy, Contemporary, Fringe Theatre, Theatre
Venue: Sweet Grassmarket
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A f*ckboy is to become the king of the f*ckboys and is sent by Kanye West on a mission. This mission involves a golden quest with the whole tempo and attitude of the production set early with conception, not of the show, and ending us up in the realm of defeating Muffy the Pussy Slayer this has enough infantile sex gags to make you chuckle.
Review
It’s hardly Shakespeare but is it funny? The answer is – some of it. There are places where the script just hits the crude because it can but then veers off into… even cruder. The Dildocorn, the misogyny Olympics – there are no depths to which we do not go to get the laugh. It therefore does not always hang together.
The first masturbation scene was actually quite inspired and of all the stuff that was used in here this was the one that, ahem, stood out. Just as a flavour for the show it is that sort of innuendo that is just absent from everything in it.
This has late night in a student union written all in it though it would be unfair not to acknowledge that it does manage to get beyond the Beer Bar humour. The misogyny is supposed to be ironical, I suppose, but it needs to be lanced rather than played upon. The performances are therefore what kept me interested and the careful interplay. The fact is that the characters did not keep my attention.
What does work is the performances between the four actors who clearly have had a ball creating this and want to share at least one of their balls with us. It romps along and the crowd to which it played loved it. All the cultural references which an old goat like me did get but kinda swerved because we had heard it before, was enthusiastically applauded and guffawed along with.
Set and theatre arts were good and the use of various costumes made this an upmarket version of a tough watch for your granny.
Clearly this is a comic bunch who can make their generation laugh which is great. As for the development of a performance style and theatrical metier there is probably more behind this than in it. So don’t take yer maiden aunty and keep the kids away but if you like it crude, rude and up to the minute, don’t hesitate.
