The Cabinet of Madame Fanny Du Thé continues at Pleasance Courtyard – The Green, Edinburgh until 26 August 2019.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Considering what an awful night it was the evening I saw this show, the cast is amazing. They sang and played their way with verve through an assortment of dodgy tales in a drafty tent outside the Pleasance with rainwater running down the roof and an audience of very wet people.
The premise of this show is that Fanny has run away (or at least wants to run away) from her society marriage and family with an assortment of dress-wearing servants to have her adventures in the world. As a result, she gets herself involved in some very strange things, including the first brain transplant and the death of a giant squid.
The piece would benefit from a larger theatre, as overall it is very loud, but the performers are all great and the music cheery.
Ultimately the whole premise is strangely empty though as Fanny’s adventures mostly have no substance and what substance they do have is politically a bit suspect.
In the end she returns to her family and accepts her fate to become a wife and mother and immediately vanishes from the stage. The moral of the story is apparently that it is worth having dreams, even if you don’t get to live them out…
Overall this show is a lot of fun if you don’t think too hard about it.
Clare Walters
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