TIT SWINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“a tidal wave of laughs, stomps, and smiles rolling over the participating audience”

There is something for everyone at Fringe. An 18+ punk opera musical about Bonny and Read is certainly an acquired taste but Tit Swingers exceeds doing what it says on the tin. Tongue in cheek and packed full of musical chemistry, the audience are taken on a journey of loud and proud hot girl pirate shit.

This engaging and punchy gig show explores the legendary backstory of polyamorous queer pirates who are “tired of living in the shadow of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd and Calico Jack”. Becky Cox’s set provides a beautifully rugged backdrop and aids projections of the seven seas, as masterful shanties play out on stage. As gig theatre goes, Tit Swingers is visually striking and thoughtful. It would be interesting to see what this team could achieve in pushing the staging to its next level, so actors have greater depth of stage and upped their playfulness even further. However, the use of props and instruments in Tit Swingers makes for inventive and refreshing moments; it is clear from the get-go that the performers know the space and its capabilities well and use them to just about their full potential. As the cast mention, it would be excellent to give them the opportunity to go full pelt with their punk personas- although their inability to smash up guitars does make for a good laugh.

Sam Kearney-Edwardes (playing Anne Bonney) and Abey Bradbury (playing Mary Read) have an electric rapport that immediately warms the audience to their innuendos and playful flirty humour. The sexual humour manages to tow a good line, coming into its own as the show progresses. Tit Swingers is not for the faint of heart but does not overindulge in crude humour for the sake of it. Asides between songs are creatively informative and casually hilarious.

Bradbury and Kearney-Edwardes’ harmonies overlap gorgeously and climb to impressive vocal heights, leaping from genre to genre. It will be a while before I shake the infectious and awesome ‘Hot Girl Pirate Shit’ from my brain. There is also a lovely authenticity to this talented comedic and musical pair that extends to Max Kinder (Calico Jack) who masterfully underpins the show with thrilling drumming and shameless physical comedy. As the cast’s tales unfold, we are treated to hilarious ukelele, kazoo, and washboard shanties, along with amazing piano and operatic singing. This talented trio, and their dramaturg Sophie Coward, create a unique and vibrant atmosphere that packs a fresh punch to a niche market.

Between the dark humour and relentless flirting, Tit Swingers presents a beautiful edge to reclaiming historical space for queer people, and those with gender minorities. This show is a touching ode to punk pirate legends who have had to stand in the side lines of history, putting them centre stage in an accessible, sharp, and witty piece of drama. Whilst delivering a resounding message of taking up space and claiming queer empowerment, Tit Swingers successfully keeps a tidal wave of laughs, stomps, and smiles rolling over the participating audience. Although, if you aren’t a fan of a little bit of ye olde audience interaction, I would advise to wear something a bit non-descript and avoid eye contact (as hard as the cast may try to catch it).

This show delivers a self-aware and polished hour of crude punk musical brilliance, in the best way possible. It is safe to say Tit Swingers is one very good catch.

TIT SWINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Two

Reviewed on 20th August 2024

by Molly Knox

Photography by Shay Rowan

TIT SWINGERS

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★★½

“Nook is best in its moments of tenderness”

A tense family drama revolving around a shared history of trauma, Off Main Stage’s new production Nook shines a light on the lasting effects of wounds from childhood: how they shape entire lives and cause permanent fissures between siblings.

Writer Cameron Corcoran, who also plays Tom, the younger of two brothers, creates a simple but effective narrative device: following their mother’s funeral, two brothers and a sister return to the home where they grew up, in order to read the will. The brothers are accompanied by their wives, and their uncle Phillip (Tim Molyneux) an alcoholic in recovery who lived with their mother and credits her with turning his life around. He is also the only one to hold any tenderness for the mother, and he tries to convince the siblings that she was more than the monster they remember her as. The tensions simmering just below the surface erupt when the will is read and everything is left to the eldest brother Kenny, played by Shannon Smith.

The play addresses the insidious consequences of physical and sexual abuse, with the mother’s ‘hands on’ parenting and an obscure past incident between sister Beth (Velvet Brown) and Phillip never far from the minds of the characters. The tensions emerging from class dynamics within relationships are also central: both brothers have married aspirational middle-class women – as evidenced by their choice of children’s names: Hugo and Arabella – who are appalled by their husbands’ behaviour upon returning to the house, where they revert to their old, combative selves.

Overall, the performances are good, Brown is compelling as the emotionally damaged sister trying to keep the family together. Kenny’s wife Sarah, played well by Zoë Scott, is all barely contained rage and contempt, while Tom’s partner Maya (Aoife Boyle) is by turns supportive and exasperated. The stage set is simple and evocative, a basic living room set up of sofa, armchair and coffee table is a fitting backdrop for the confrontations, uneasy alliances, and emotional outbursts that drive the play. Hector Smith’s direction enables the actors to make the best of this space, and the physical performances are striking; Corcoran’s adoption of childlike mannerisms in the presence of his overbearing older brother is particularly commendable.

Nevertheless, the narrative lacunae and the things left unsaid, while perhaps an accurate depiction of the difficulties sharing traumatic experiences, leave the audience too uncertain about events – there is little for us to grasp onto in terms of plot, leading to a sense of waiting for a revelation that never truly emerges. Nook is best in its moments of tenderness, as Sarah and Maya try to comfort and guide their husbands, but these are too fleeting. The play opens with Sarah’s bitterness and irritability, and this sets the tone for the action to come, creating a piece that is possibly too tonally consistent, and lacking in the elements of comedy that make the malevolent family-oriented work of playwrights like Harold Pinter so compelling.

Category Archives: Reviews

TIT SWINGERS

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

TIT SWINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“a tidal wave of laughs, stomps, and smiles rolling over the participating audience”