Tag Archives: Conor Dye

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”

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

TIT SWINGERS

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JULIE: THE MUSICAL

★★½

The Other Palace

JULIE: THE MUSICAL at The Other Palace

★★½

“Given the central message of the piece is a celebration of the chaotic and unpolished, Julie: The Musical gets away with a lot”

You have no idea how much I wanted to like this swashbuckling tale of a legendary bisexual opera star from seventeenth century France who knew her way around an epée, and broke hearts from Paris to Marseille.

For the most part, I really did. I loved the cast, and their multi talented musicianship. However, the show picks up the theme of chaos that percolates through Julie D’Aubigny’s life and really runs with it. The language is blue, the narrative is non-linear and regularly interrupted with ‘let me explain’ interludes, there’s a wig reveal, and bit-part characters straight out of telenovelas via RuPaul’s drag race. Look, a lot of this is entertaining, but altogether the effect can send your head spinning.

This is a show that has been iterated over the last four years into a two hour marathon that ducks and weaves through the life of a fascinating historical figure. The real Julie D’Aubigny would be considered a wild child, had she existed in the modern day. The fact she lived over 300 years ago and still was so seemingly unapologetic and adventurous is even more astounding. Naturally, there are many of her experiences the Le Gasp! production team led by writer and performer Abey Bradbury are breathlessly keen to reproduce on stage, but perhaps choosing a few less and keeping the show tighter would have been more effective.

The music suffers slightly from a similar overenthusiasm. The foursome in the cast regularly rotate around electric guitars, percussion, a squeeze box, a bass, ukulele and for Melinda Orengo, a cello. This is certainly impressive, if not anxiety producing as the actors regularly appear to stumble when swapping positions over the drums and guitars, all of which remain on stage throughout. The style of the tracks is largely upbeat and rocky, reminiscent of Six The Musical, occasionally Noah and the Whale, and at one point, Blur, with big vocals in particular from Sam Kearney-Edwardes as Julie. These worked well with harmonies from Bradbury, Zachary Pang and Orengo. I would have liked to see more light and shade within the music, and maybe more of an effort to integrate operatics, which were central to Julie’s life. It felt like a missed opportunity that this was always played as a joke. Only right at the end of the second act is some variety with the pared back and sensitive Breathe Again and Unnormal Lives.

Conor Dye’s direction also doubled down on the theme of chaos; there’s breaking the fourth wall and then there’s pantomime and this felt like it occasionally strayed into the latter with Julie’s overconfident asides. I regularly felt like I was jolted out of the suspense of disbelief, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a cameo from JoJo Siwa. This fed into the interests of the audience (mine included), but felt haphazard. A brief moment of puppetry to represent young Julie was also very effective, and I would have loved more experimentation like this. Unfortunately, there were also a couple of mistakes that were acknowledged on stage. Given the largely informal nature of the show, the first was largely forgivable, especially with some great comic timing and improvisation from the actors. The second, less so.

The stage design (Becky Cox) does well to reflect the unsteady nature of Julie’s life, with multiple broken proscenium arches and half dyed curtains framing different levels. Costumes are similar, featuring fraying and dissymmetry, mixing modern styles and nods to historical corsetry. However, the tech felt a bit haphazard, requiring nods to the booth to get the lighting cues. Sometimes this worked, reminiscent of a rock concert. Sometimes not. Attention was also often drawn to multiple places on stage, and the instrument and vocals were sometimes unbalanced, so I struggled to hear some lines. A key character pops up throughout the timeline, but the transitions were not distinct enough: it wasn’t clear if the actor had changed character, or if there was a moment that the audience needed to note.

Given the central message of the piece is a celebration of the chaotic and unpolished, Julie: The Musical gets away with a lot. It can be enjoyable, especially if you submit to losing control. As a fringe piece, it works well, but given the upgrade to larger theatres, a little more restraint might be needed. Just don’t tell Julie I said that.

 


JULIE: THE MUSICAL at The Other Palace

Reviewed on 13th June 2024

by Rosie Thomas

Photography by Ben Wilkin

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CRUEL INTENTIONS: THE 90s MUSICAL | ★★★★ | January 2024
A VERY VERY BAD CINDERELLA | ★★★★ | December 2023
TROMPE L’OEIL | ★★★ | September 2023
DOM – THE PLAY | ★★★★ | February 2023
GHOSTED – ANOTHER F**KING CHRISTMAS CAROL | ★★★★★ | December 2022
GLORY RIDE | ★★★ | November 2022
MILLENNIALS | ★★★ | July 2022

Julie

Julie

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