The Guardian - 21.08.2019

Section:GDN 12 PaGe:13 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 14:59 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

• The Guardian
  Wednesday 21 August 2019 13
  Live reviews

PHOTOGRAPHS: MURDO MACLEOD; TAKIS

ZONTIROS;

HELEN MURRAY

same subject ), and choice one-

liners across the board (“Have

you ever done a fart so bad

you lost a bar of wifi ?”). Weak

moments are few, and include a

riff on sporting events as proxy

“race wars” (a bit of a stretch),  as

well as a not exactly cutting-

edge takedown of Popeye. There

are also some grown up refl ections

on how the sexes are judged

diff erently for the same behaviour,

and on the anxiety surrounding

comedy foreign accents.

I liked it a lot, and may even

have loved it were it not for

a slight cynicism (ironic or

otherwise) that has crept into

Wang’s demeanour, and a

certain air of detachment from

his material. He’s not quite

the equable  and lovable fellow

of previous shows. But Philly

Philly Wang Wang remains a

strong off ering – and very few

of those early-bird bookers will

leave disappointed.

Brian Logan

★★★☆☆

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Until 26 August

Comedy

Phil Wang

Theatre

If You’re

Feeling Sin ister

P

hil Wang made a

little piece of fringe

history this year

before the festival

even began, when he

sold out in advance

his entire run in the Pleasance

Courtyard’s Cabaret bar. His

popularity does not come as a

surprise: the new show – his fi rst

since 2017’s terrifi c Kinabalu  – is

high-end standup with excellent

jokes, refreshing perspectives

and a distinctive persona. It is

very easy to admire , albeit a little

harder to love than some of his

previous off erings.

Why so? It’s partly that he is

more alpha than he used to be ,

with a new no-messing, harder-

nosed attitude. In previous shows,

there was an amusing tension

between his shtick , which involved

faux self-love and glorifying

himself archly in the third person

(witness current show title,

Philly Philly Wang Wang), and

the evidence of our eyes, that he

was a charming nerd. There is

less tension now, as he tells us

how focused he is on becoming

wealthy, and warns us not to expect

comedians – least of all  himself – to

be good people.

Of course, this is all just for

laughs. And he gets plenty of

them. There’s a great early

routine about his dual white and

Asian identity (“Lucky Wang’s

rolled two sixes over here!”), a

strong bit on contraception across

the gender divide ( comparable

to Aziz Ansari’s recent skit on the

‘W

e’re

seeing

other

people –

at least

that’s

what we say we are doing,” goes

the refrain of the second track on

Belle and Sebastian’s dreamy 1996

album If You’re Feeling Sinister. It

is about friends who are “kissing

just for practice”, claiming they just

want to cuddle, but is laden with

uncertainty. They promise not to get

muddled, but we don’t believe them.

Although it crops up somewhere

in the middle of Eve Nicol ’s eccentric

play with songs, Seeing Other People

could have been her starting point.

Finding themselves somewhere

between Willy Russell’s Educating

Rita and David Greig’s Midsummer ,

her central characters, Kid and Boss,

have a pupil-teacher relationship

that’s uncommonly intense but not

romantic , and the play is troubled by

the fuzzy limits of their aff air.

If that’s odd for a musical, so too

is the premise that has brought them

together. They might not be lovers,

but they are partners in crime. For

reasons we never fully discover they

have stolen Glasgow’s favourite

painting, Salvador Dalí’s Christ

of Saint John of the Cross , from

Kelvingrove gallery. The presence

of this piece of iconography gives

some justifi cation to religiously

themed songs such as the title track.

But if you thought Belle and

Sebastian would make an awkward

fi t for the stage, you wouldn’t be

entirely wrong. Many of Stuart

Murdoch’s songs are stories in

themselves, and few do anything

to drive the plot. “Why is the man

singing about a fox in the snow?”

we wonder, pleasing though it is to

hear the song of the same name.

But if we’re left guessing about

the objectives of the characters,

we’re on fi rm ground with the

actors.  Alan McHugh and Sarah

Swire play punchily across

the generation divide, singing

sweetly and proving themselves

accomplished stars of track

and fi eld.

Mark Fisher

Theatre

F Off

I

t’s massively heartening

to see such talented,

committed teenagers on

stage as ZooNation’s youth

company. A diverse crew

aged between 12 and 17, the

girls are powerful, the boys unafraid

of expressing themselves; they make

you feel good about the future.

In Tales of the Turntable, a shy

wannabe DJ called Eric goes on a

tour of music and dance history,

courtesy of his grandpa’s magic

gramophone time machine. They

roll back the decades to take in

swing, disco, hip-hop, house

and new jack swing, with lively,

quick-footed choreography from

longtime ZooNation associate

Carrie-Anne Ingrouille , whose

credits include Six  and Hamilton.

The neat conceit is a great

way of packing in lots of dance

styles, and fi nding links between

them (Charleston footwork and

hip-hop toprock, for example).

But the narrative is uneven

and sometimes loses its thrust.

The script is delivered by a

recorded narrator with the young

performers miming: this works

on one level but exposes the

soundtrack that ties everything

together, and DJ Walde’s music

lacks enough big hooks to boost

the party. You really notice the

diff erence when a few famous

songs light up the stage.

The young performers are

terrifi c, but the best bit by far

is right at the end, when the

dancers take their applause in a

ramped-up climax: the tempo

accelerates, the music is bang up

to date and the moves are sizzling.

Solos ping-pong around the stage

and the crazy energy of the group

erupts in almost violent joy. You

couldn’t keep up that level of

attack for a whole show but it

does make what’s come before

seem rather staid.

Still loads to smile about,

though. Recommended for teens

and tweens.

Lyndsey Winship

★★★★☆

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

Until 25 August

★★★☆☆

Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh

Until 26 August

★★★☆☆

Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh

Until 25 August

I

n a recent New Yorker

cartoon by Emily Flake , a

man is unpacking boxes of

T-shirts branded with the

slogan: #TeamFeralHog.

Another man stands behind

him, looking disapproving. The

caption reads: “I think you may

have miscalculated the length of the

modern attention span.” A week is a

decade online, as the National Youth

Theatre demonstrate in this scatty

meditation on social media, politics

and data usage. “It’s all about

attention,” they tell us. However

messy this ambitious meta drama is,

NYT fi rmly sustain ours.

The audience are asked to be the

jury in the trial of the people vs Mark

Zuckerberg, when Facebook’s CEO is

accused of data theft. Alongside this,

we see technology’s interference

with democracy reverberate

through domestic narratives. Tatty

Hennessy’s script attacks both

ends of the political spectrum, with

the overarching suggestion that

whatever your politics, likes now

overrule morals.

It is delightfully chaotic, and the

large cast throw everything at it.

The play has the feel of a barrage of

memes – impressively up to date

and just about managing to subvert

cliches. Inevitably, some parts don’t

work : the interactive form feels

more larky than purposeful, though

it is fun to be so involved. An overly

extended Facebook Live magic

trick metaphor starts to drag, while

chucking unused props into a net

above the set feels like an obvious

way of representing the cloud. But

the overwhelming nature of the

material is arguably apt , and a lot of

the most audacious sections – ever

seen Zuckerberg tap dance before?

• are highly entertaining. Paul
  Roseby’s direction veers between
  slick and skittish, and the cast work
  together to create a room that fi zzes.
  The play delves smartly into
  racial politics, hypocrisy and
  accountability. It may feel gimmicky,
  but F Off is dynamic, fun and makes
  you question your use of the internet
  and the internet’s use of us.
  Kate Wyver

Dance

Tales of the

Turntable

Delightfully

chaotic ... Jessica

Enemokwu

Plenty of laughs ...

Phil Wang

Intense ... Alan

McHugh and

Sarah Swire

Sizzling ...

ZooNation Youth

Company

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