Michael Cox reviews a production that 'just might end up being the funniest, heartfelt winner of this festival season'.
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel should not work. It’s a mess. The plot is all over the place and is mostly populated by thin caricatures. And yet it just might end up being the funniest, heartfelt winner of this festival season.
The titular hotel has seen better days. Once a grand place, it is now being run into the ground by a corporate ethos attempting to modernise but is only managing to kill any charm the building once had. Within its corridors are a number of guests, serviced by an overworked staff who don’t answer to the names on their badges. Joining them is fresh recruit Aaron, who’s fallen in love with a voice he’s heard on his first day. Does it belong to a ghost or to a fellow staff member?
The contrivances of farce are at play throughout. Doors slam, characters prance about and lines are thrown about at a rapid pace. Isobel McArthur has made an impressive name for herself in writing pieces that are hilarious yet contain wit and heart: this is no different. Director Gareth Nicholls acts more as a conductor here, managing to keep the balls of character and plot floating in the air with a manic sense that constantly issues laughs.
Perhaps the play itself is a tad too long, and the performance seen at press could have shown a more technical polish and a faster pace in some scenes. But no matter: The Grand Old Opera House Hotel is an utter laugh riot from the start.
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel performs in the Traverse One space at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Performances are at alternative times until Sunday Aug 27th. It is part of the Made in Scotland programme. Image by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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