Edinburgh Fringe 2025
The Drop of a Hat
Double Edge Drama
Genre: Comedy, Dark Comedy, Theatre
Venue: the Space @ Symposium Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Deep in the dark moments just before D-day British forces along with their American counterparts drop a couple of operatives – Monty and Schulz – behind enemy lines to make contact with the French resistance. In their possession are the plans for D-day, which are cleverly, according to the commissioned officer from the British army, sewn into the inside of a hat. Once behind enemy lines, they make contact with the French resistance before the hapless Brit, Monty, turns over a list of the French resistance names and the hat to a Nazi.
Review
This is a Michael Palin style romp from the past of Derring Do and thorough upper-class incompetence. The narrative springs into action, thanks to the matching of Monty, upper-class, over privileged child and the American Shulz, who will follow orders but is sceptical enough to realise the danger. They meet Colbert, the French resistance owner of an auberge, who appears somewhere between over-optimistic and constantly in fear of everything. The story of the friendship between the three begins with Monty being chosen for the task because the original British army operative was killed by slipping on marmalade. It sets a tone which is relentlessly pursed to the end. Everything is mined for humour, and whilst some of the characterisations do tend towards the stereotypical, this is what makes this work – there is little time for introspection when Shulz announces he was born in Germany. Nevertheless, this feels like something developed and worked on for a long time as you can see the engagement with the writing and the looks and exchanges delivered with pinpoint and flawless accuracy.
The narrative drives forward with suitable pace – fast – which has the added tonal quality of holding pauses when needed to, to allow us o catch our breath and await the next guffaw. This is a slickly directed and delivered piece of theatre, apart from towards the end. There are scene changes with people coming on and then leaving, then returning that didn’t help because it took us away from the slickness of what had been delivered before. Perhaps a conversation between director and writer was required to maintain the standards that they had achieved from the beginning.
Set was minimal, lights were absolutely bang on, and the costume was absolutely as it ought to be.
Whilst there was an element of stereotype in this, with both French and German characters and the hapless upper class British twit, it was recognisable and therefore, not thought-provoking, but mirth-inducing. The Drop of a Hat takes a very interesting idea, develops it theatrically and delivers in a very impressive manner.
