Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Readymades
Meltzer und Berlin Theatergruppe
Genre: Clown, Comedy, Puppetry
Venue: Underbelly Cowgate
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
The FringeReview lowdown normally aims to give the reader a pithy summary of the performance being reviewed. And, whilst Readymades is a live-action cartoon with an old-school overhead projector which flicks between shadow puppetry and clown comedy, that doesn’t cover the half of it. Welcome to Planet Bonkers. Read, imagine and admire.
Review
Two figures sit on a stage, either side of a back-lit screen, contemplating. One is examining a bit of plumbing in his hand, a universal “U” bend, the sort used to stop back flushing and odours from a urinal, for example. The other is holding a recorder. He plays and, projected onto the screen, we see a door with a sign. To the gents. The animation follows innumerable steps down into the deep and dark recesses of where ever we are, past pipework that makes the average Heath Robinson cartoon seem simple until, finally, we reach the toilet. And the urinal.
Readymades, created and performed by Levi Meltzer and Sam Berlin, is part narration, part mime, part puppetry, and features a lavatory attendant with artistic leanings and his muse which is, ahem, a urinal. Not any old urinal though. This is a urinal with attitude. And legs too, legs that it uses to escape its dark surroundings to explore the big, wide world.
So far, so completely absurd. I mean, who’s ever thought of creating an anthropomorphic urinal? Especially one that legs it (literally) from the venue, presumably so it can commence its world tour. And the idea that said urinal engages in correspondence from whatever far flung destination it settles on barely touches the scale in terms of the wackiness endemic to this bizarre and fascinating hour.
That’s what makes this show so hard to describe. The multiple idea juxtapositions, for example. An audience member who is somehow persuaded to use the urinal on stage, to accompanying sound effects of course, with the sublime, ethereal shadow puppetry that’s a major element of the show is hard to fathom. The beautifully British game show “Where We Wee” opposite a French allotment holder with an apparent obsession with cabbages – que se passe-t-il?
You’re really not sure where the story is going next, so many are the whimsical diversions that Metzer embarks on. His ability to work an audience and to land a punchline are never in doubt. He’s not afraid to pause and let the audience catch up either. He also goes off script at the drop of a hat. And engages with the audience – the poor soul who needed to leave the show briefly (bladder perhaps straining as a result of the onstage activities of our “volunteer”) must have wished they’d just sat still and crossed their legs. At times it felt a bit like ideas overload but, if you’re happy to run with that, it all kind of works. Just.
Metzer and Berlin have taken quite a punt with this piece of, I guess, performance art that incorporates clowning, mime, improv, interaction and a whole lot of the immersive, particularly for those sitting in the eyeline of Metzer. He has this uncanny knack of being able to persuade intelligent, perfectly rational human beings to do things so far out of their comfort zones that you’d have thought they’d been smoking something pretty weird before they entered the eerie confines of Underbelly Cowgate’s Delhi Belly.
Berlin says little but what he does is as dry as a desert, yet laced with pathos and humour, sometimes both at the same time. Berlin played a variety of vignettes to support Metzer’s central character and each is executed with aplomb. He’s also the main puppeteer, at which he excels, each character taking on a life of its own as it dances across the screen. The intricacy of each small movement must have taken an age to devise and learn and it’s a stand out part of the show.
Supporting the action on stage are some very cleverly scripted (and executed) sound and lighting effects. Metzer, in particular, has regular interaction with the techie, relying on split second delivery of the effect to tie in with his movements on stage.
This is an exciting piece of theatre with a lot of potential. There’s a strong central story line, really clever, detailed, expressive shadow puppetry, humour, pathos, a reflective, poignant denouement and much silliness. If you’re happy to run with the performers, they’ll take your imagination to places you possibly didn’t know existed. For that reason alone, this is work that’s worth seeking out.
