POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★★

“this camp, fairy-tale romp of a show is going to be the best hour and fifteen of our day”

A cloud drifts across the stage. Six tall columns stand proud, with a scattering of shorter ones—Doric and Ionic, naturally—not a Corinthian in sight. The cloud becomes a marvellous projection surface, alive with images that reveal the inner thoughts and inner musings of this gloriously queer fantasia.

We begin with Beyoncé’s 2022 triumph—her Renaissance, the album that changed everything. And then, we’re told, this show is about the other Renaissance. Of course.

Cue art history gags—the sort of jokes that send art historians into delighted squeals. Like how everyone “hates” Raphael (not true, of course, but who doesn’t enjoy taking potshots at the popular girls?). Our guides are the gay ghosts of the Italian Renaissance, and instantly we know: this camp, fairy-tale romp of a show is going to be the best hour and fifteen of our day.

Enter the brothers: Michelangelo and Leonardo. Yes, those guys—but here they are flaming, fabulous, and gloriously, unapologetically gay. Gay in both the homosexual sense and the whimsical, theatrical sense. Yet, in their time, love like theirs was forbidden. Cue a parade of songs so cheeky you can’t help but grin: mischievous “truths” such as the Mona Lisa being nothing more than a cute boyfriend in drag. When asked about new student orientation, the cast cracks: “heterosexual.” The show revels in falsification, camp exaggeration, and rewriting history with fabulous flair. And yes—there is a great Pope. Of course there is.

The scenic world of this piece is a clever use of tall and short columns, which shift and support the ever-morphing scenes. Michelangelo discovers a chisel, conjures the Pietà, finds a twenty-year-old block of marble, and miraculously liberates David from the stone. But in this work, what’s truly freed from the marble is love itself.

The message is simple, yet profound: we are all brothers, sisters, siblings, lovers, or none of the above, if we are aromantic, and that is okay, too. Whether we fall in love, never love, love differently, or love not at all, every expression—or non-expression—of love is vital. That is the rainbow light bathing the white columns. For it is not the pillars that hold this world aloft, but acceptance, love, and—let’s face it—talent.

There are moments when we must cry, “Pop off, Michelangelo!”

Moments when we must sculpt the seemingly unsculptable.

Moments when we ourselves must be freed from the rock—or pried away from the orgy.

And there are moments when chapels of acceptance are built not from stone, but from art and theatre. For theatre has always done this: told whimsical, joyful stories that whisper—no, sing—to the world: it doesn’t matter what you are, or who you are. You are special. Especially if you are Marisa Tomei.

The cast is outstanding: Max Eade (Michelangelo), Aidan MacColl (Leonardo da Vinci), Michael Marouli (Pope), Laura Sillett (Savonarola), Kurrand Khand (Salai), Aoife Haakenson (Mother), and Sev Keoshgerian (Italian Chef).

The creatives are equally dazzling:

Dylan Marcaurele (Book, Music and Lyrics), Sundeep Saini (Choreographer & Intimacy Director), Emily Bestow (Costume Designer), Adam King (Lighting Designer), Joe McNeice, Emily Bestow & PJ McEvoy (Set Design), Joe McNeice (Director).

So don’t be a Pick-Me Girl. Pick this. Let it erase the homophobia of the past and remind us that love is only ever love. For love does not separate us—it connects us. Or, at the very least, gets us through “ten years of art therapy.”

POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Reviewed on 17th August 2025 at Udderbelly at Underbelly, George Square

by Louis Kavouras

Photography by Danny with a Camera

Pop Off

★★★★

“The direction is astounding to maintain a delicate balance between a comedy and the central ‘whodunit.’”

Over 13 years since its first performance, Murder, She Didn’t Write is still touring and delighting audiences more than ever as it embarks on a UK tour in 2025. It is an intriguing spin on the classic murder mystery, a narrative framework that, despite the ‘murder,’ we feel comfortable with as we have seen it many times before.

However, it is certain that we haven’t seen this one before. Every night the stars of Degrees of Error act out a new storyline based on plot points that are yet to be determined. Agatha Crust, an obvious nod to the godmother of the genre, is our detective. She chooses one lucky audience member to perform the role of Jerkins, her assistant. From this point on, Jerkins holds the pen as they choose the setting, murder weapon, victim and murderer in this one-off recount. But don’t worry, all is not uncovered until the big reveal.

The play starts slowly as our characters are introduced and the scene is set. Credit should go to the set design (Justin Williams) for producing a backdrop that works remarkably well; however, the story unfolds. Credit should also go costume design and supervisor (Lu Herbert and Charlotte Murray). The costumes are expositions about the characters that we are watching, adding depth and reference and helping us to easily differentiate between our suspects.

The actors take a short time to work their way into the narrative. Most of the first act is about planting the seed for what is to follow. Countless random details are divulged by each of the characters. Some of these will be red herrings, others will be smoking guns. The quick wit of all the cast members is side-splitting. “Waitrose” becomes “Wait Rose!” and “synesthetic” becomes “sin aesthetic” as the audience’s suggestions and earlier events are woven into the narrative.

At times it feels like the show is starting to lose its course before Agatha regains control. The direction (Lizzy Skrzypiec, who also sometimes stars as Agatha) is astounding to maintain a delicate balance between a comedy and the central ‘whodunit.’

Agatha, on stage for the entire performance, is a comforting presence as she watches the story alongside us. It is an exceptional performance as the glue of a production that, despite the impressive improvisation of all of the cast, would possibly not function without her. Predictably, Agatha steals the show in the final chapter when she moves from narrator to detective, and explains, in front of all of the suspects, who committed the murder, just like Poirot did in Murder on the Orient Express. It is a delivery so strong that we are told not why it could be this suspect but how it must be them and could not be anyone else.

The lighting and sound (Adam King and Lucy Baker-Swinburn) are critical to the show and help to steer the plot as much as any of the characters. The choice of music (Sara Garrard) is precise, which acts as an antidote to the chaos surrounding it. The use of short scenes, some as short as 30 seconds, is effective in contributing to the rising tension in the second act, but it does feel as though the play suffers from a lack of continuity, and thus an over-reliance on our narrator.

Despite the characters knowing who the murderer is (before the audience), as we approach the crescendo, we fear that there are too many storylines still spinning, like a magician spinning too many plates. However, we see that none of these spinning plates smash as we are watching magicians on stage.

Tag Archives: Adam King

POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

★★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

POP OFF, MICHELANGELO!

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★★

“this camp, fairy-tale romp of a show is going to be the best hour and fifteen of our day”