Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Gumshoe
Christian Dart
Genre: character comedy, Theatre
Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Gumshoe is a detective grizzled and just off the barbecue looking to solve the anagram killer mystery. He begins by plucking from the audience, Claire who becomes the dame, the femme fatale who has wandered in off the mean streets of the city of New Yoik, order to give him the case, the suspect, the quest. From there Gumshoe goes through many suspects as he attempts to find an Oliver, whilst getting around or through Angela Pangela or was it Andrea Pandrea, the prime suspect. By the end we have had had all of the cliches, much of the action and all of the fun of a pantomimic romp.
Review
Christian Dart has won many awards for his work, and this shows just exactly why. The structure of Gumshoe has many nods not only to the noir of the 40s but also, if my memory serves me right, other references to the 80s including when Claire walked in we knew it was going to be “moi-der” but without a Max (Hart to Hart) to guide him through it we ended up chasing the Jewel in the Nile – I half expected to see Danny DeVito, Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas to fall out of a cupboard.
It’s directed with great enthusiasm and pace and uses much theatrical trickery through lighting, sound and much effort in selling the jokes. At times those jokes might be a little tired, but they’re always delivered with a side order of gusto.
This was less Miss Marple, more Elmore Leonard with an extra layer of Terry Pratchett across it. It works exceptionally well because it respects the source material but also mines so much out of it.
There have been look returns to pulp fiction and film noir to provide a laugh. Here Dart knows his material and is highly skilled at being able to deliver it. He is able to play with the form and work with the audience in such a way that he is constantly making as much out of the material he can. That includes whatever is in the audience that day. What a twist, indeed.
Technically Dart has managed to include sound effects and lighting in his work meaning which a nod to his tech team, can include wandering off script many times.
It has tremendous pace though the ending keeps going which ended with me interrupting the peroration by standing at the side desperate to leave – not because I wanted to leave, just because I had somewhere else to go. If I could have sat for another serving of Gumshoe I would have.
Gumshoe is fun. Gumshoe is panto. Gumshoe is one of the best examples I have seen for a long time of how you take a cliché and turn it into a theatrical triumph.
