The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013 is up and running, here’s the third of a number of updates about musicals and cabarets being staged at the international event.
The Bloody Ballad runs at The Assembly Rooms, Roxy Upstairs. Picture: Kirsten McTernan
The Bloody Ballad featuring Mary and The Missin’ Fingers
31 July–25 August (not 12 and 19), The Assembly Rooms, Roxy Upstairs (Venue 139)
Following an acclaimed UK tour and London debut, The Bloody Ballad featuring Mary and The Missin’ Fingers runs at Assembly Roxy Upstairs. The cast includes Tom Cottle, Hannah McPake, Dan Messore, Lucy Rivers and Oliver Wood.
This ‘toe-tapping-rocking-rolling-chills-n-spills-blood-curdling journey of murder and mayhem’ follows Mary, a girl with a dark past who’s had one hell of a week. She’s going to tell audiences all about how she fell in love, got betrayed, killed two men and got taken hostage, plus there’s more murder, a spot of arson, and falling in love all over again. All backed by the pounding rhythm of the show’s band The Missin’ Fingers. Grimms meets Tarantino in this brutal love story set during Memorial Day celebrations in 1950s America, featuring original, live music inspired by blues, rockabilly and Americana. Part gig, part slasher movie, part road movie and part murder ballad.
Gagglebabble and Theatr Iolo present The Bloody Ballad, directed by Adele Thomas, with words and music from Lucy Rivers.
A Body to Die[t] For
31 July–26 August (not 13), C Venues (Venue 34)
Fresh from its workshop in London as part of the From Page to Stage season of new musical theatre writing (at the Landor Theatre), TKD Productions presents Tim Anfilogoff and Alan Whittaker’s sharp and satirical musical which makes its world premiere at C Venues. A Body to Die[t] For is a darkly comic, uplifting, fantasy musical about our obsession with body-image. Greta is a normal teenager and would-be English teacher from Brentwood. Running away from an abusive stepfather, she begins a journey towards self-discovery through a crazy world where her body is the object of fascination to all and where fat and thin, male and female, media and politics, appetite and self-image are at war.
As Greta’s weight and fortunes fluctuate, she is exploited by the fashion industry, betrayed by friends and lovers, experimented on, targeted by anti-body fascist terrorists and manipulated by politicians. Which of her lovers will she end up with? Will she achieve her dream of becoming an English teacher? Will obese surrealist terrorists blow up her wedding? Can Greta ever return to normal… and what is normal?
Grace Bishop, Nicola Kill and Rosie Watson will take on the titular role of Greta, Annie Kirkman makes her professional debut as the manipulative Fay, and they will be joined by Sam Turrell as Tony, Michael Rees as Reg/Fred, Melissa Hovelle as Rita, Will Mulvey as Gregory Hampton MP, Chelsea Corfield as Ute and Paul Brangan as Norm.
A Body To Die[t] For is directed by award-winning West End director Matthew Gould. The musical director is Benjamin Holder.
Will You Hold My Hand?
1-25 August (not 12), Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)
Will You Hold My Hand? is the new show from We Are Goose – wordsmith Timothy Goose and guitarist Richard Hughes who sing funny songs about a range of subjects. The piece features We Are Goose’s comedy hero, Scottish surgeon and anatomist John Hunter (1728-1793), the revolutionary scientist who brought major advances in the studies of human teeth, digestion, gunshot wounds and venereal diseases, which have had a lasting impact on modern medicine.
Less well-known however, is Hunter’s darker side: despite being the leading doctor of his day as Royal Surgeon to George III, his ethically dubious approach raised eyebrows then as now – think graverobbings and murders. Add to that his bouts of wild experimentation, botched attempts at cryogenics and transplantation, an obsessive love of animals, a self-innoculation that went horribly wrong and an overfamiliarity with the star of a travelling freak show.
The company tells the true story of Hunter through a range of witty songs which pastiche a multitude of styles.
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