Simon Callow, 14:00, Assembly Hall (***)
A story about identity, acceptance and relationships. Callow plays Pauline with a fascinating quality, bringing her to the stage with sensitivity and masterful talent. The loneliness that is embedded in the expression of ‘who you are’ was translated through his delivery and physical presence. Matthew Hurt’s script has moments of genius but takes a while to get going. At times I was wondering ‘why choose to do that?’ but the clever interpretation and combination of movement, music and design translates into the freak-out of a woman desperate to be accepted. Not sure about the end.
Camille O’Sullivan, 20:00, Pleasance Courtyard (**)
This starts off with such promising, eerie mystery that I immediately thought that all the hype was true. Ooops. O’Sullivan’s set is decorated like a spooky grim fairy-tale – I expected Kander and Ebb/ Kurt Weil cabaret-esq songs performed with haunting quality. Two songs in and all this faded as the discordant rock music filled the stage and Camille, who at this point started to resemble Bjork (or was it Amy Winehouse?) began a boring ego trip with self-gratifying pleasure. Disappointing.
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