Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Almost Famous
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Genre: New Writing, Solo Show, Theatre
Venue: TheSpaceUK: Surgeon's Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Emily Benton, veteran actor and star of stage and screen, is back in the UK after a career that took her to Broadway and Hollywood. With her pedigree, she feels she should be in Downton Abbey or the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, not auditioning for a role in a devised play that has only become available because another, more famous, actor has died.
Review
Almost Famous gradually reveals a woman lying about her age, adopting her sister’s identity, creating two selves to juggle and ultimately girding her loins to create another new future. It’s set over hour in the life of an actor waiting for an audition that she considers something of an insult. Still, a bigger name has just conveniently died, her agent is scrabbling for a photo of her with the aforesaid bigger name (if necessary, one will be created for that perfectly fabricated Insta moment) and that newly vacant part might be hers.
Emily Benton (Jac Wheble), veteran actor and star of stage and screen, is back in the UK after a career that took her to Broadway and Hollywood, expecting a homecoming fit for a National Treasure. Instead, she is greeting with ‘What have you done? Never heard of that’; a UK audience unmoved by the work she’s done abroad. The first half is peppered with sharp one-liners and deft comic touches – but you sense, early on, there’s darker territory ahead. And there is. The breezy narrative fractures to reveal a grittier past, before closing on regeneration and a tentative new start.
Written by Andy Moseley the play confronts the exploitation of young women in entertainment – although the focus here is the 1970s, the play leaves us with the sense that perhaps that isn’t entirely history.
Whebble is a master of accents, bringing a range of characters to life vividly with great physical energy high. A little more stillness could increase the impact of key moments. The use of posters and photographs – gradually removed or turned face-down – is neat and quietly powerful.
It is a tiny stage where the simple set of a couple of tables and a chaise longue nicely create the sense of fading glory, of having to live in a less than desirable part of London as well as a sense of intimacy with the audience.
A good show: thought provoking, gentle, funny and layered.
