An Evening Without Kate Bush – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms

An Evening Without Kate Bush continues at PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms – Ballroom, Edinburgh until 25 August 2019.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is the latest solo creation by Sarah-Louise Young who has already channelled her inner love of Julie Andrews in UK and New York in Julie Madly Deeply and now re-joins forces with director Russell Lucas to offer a fan letter and celebration of the work and creations of Kate Bush.

I was in a tiny minority of people who knew none of the songs, or anything about the style and creativity of this strange phenomena. I didn’t know about hounds of love or dancing on the moors. I do now and I feel fascinated enough to head to YouTube and see whether Kate Bush is anywhere near as captivating, engaging and glorious as the singer Sarah-Louise Young is.

She has a powerhouse voice and an effortless way of drawing all of us in, especially the many deep fans in the audience. Together she and Lucas create beautiful stage pictures and realisations of the drama and storytelling in her songs. I hope Bush sees the show in time – and that audiences in festivals around the world will get to see this diva’s genius.

This is presented by Young on the Free Fringe and I sense that this very different financial model may work well for her – the cheering and the sound of paper fluttering into her bucket was great to witness. It is a masterclass in creating a high quality, stylish, piece of theatre for and by a solo performer. Now which YouTube video should I start with?

Chris Grady