★★★★★

“a show of sparkling brilliance”

Let’s start with the show warning: “contains nudity and mild language”. Missing from this warning is “danger from collapse as a result of extreme laughing”.

This is not the show for you if naked bodies on stage offend your sensibilities. Garry Starr gets on with the show (or gets it all off?) from the moment he swings his chair around to face us – he’s been patiently waiting with his back to the audience as we take our seats. It’s all there – yes, I mean all the naughty bits – on full show. The audience explodes in laughter which pretty much never stops as the next 70 minutes roars past like a Southern Ocean squall.

And don’t expect any respect for the great literature of the Cream and Orange Penguin paperbacks era. Garry Starr – the creation of Australian comic Damien Warren-Smith – gallops through all the great books – everything from Hamlet (nodding to Garry’s former take on Shakespeare) to The Grapes of Wrath. The works are stacked on a bookshelf at the front of the stage, the titles projected on a screen at the back – set in a silver foil Antarctic mountain – as he pulls each one out then carelessly tosses it on the floor when that sketch moves on.

This is a show of sparkling brilliance. Garry/Damien is a master of mime, clowning, improvisation and wordplay. Part of the fun for us in the seats is the guessing game as the title appears. Will this one be a pun on the title? Just think what you might do with Moby Dick. Or will a member of the audience be hauled on stage to help connect four apparently unrelated titles?

It’s a one man show – and it’s not. It’s cleverly scripted – and it leaves so much to chance. It’s a riff on the classics, yet it is a fond recall of so many great books. It’s an extreme performance in the nude, yet it doesn’t shock. Despite all the comic potential, there isn’t a single barb. Garry the character is all the greater, because of the warmth Warren-Smith shows as a performer.

Garry has built up a following. In the queue to get into the theatre was a group to one side in penguin costumes, each carrying one of the eponymous books: a band of costumed fans like those waiting to attend a singalong performance of ‘Sound of Music’. That too proved a piece of pageantry. The performance starts even before you enter.

HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an hour-and-a-half whirlwind of a spectacle”

Henry Cyril Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey, converted his family’s ancient chapel into a theatre and quickly squandered his entire family fortune, only to die at the age of 29. His kin then attempted to erase him from the historical record by burning all his letters, after which one historian summarised his life as ‘in vain’. ‘How to Win Against History’ (ably directed by Lisa Spirling) takes the audience on a romp through Paget’s short life in the late 1800s: witty, ridiculous, upbeat, and fabulous, you quickly forget just how sad the premise is.

Seiriol Davies (who also wrote the book. music and lyrics for the show), dressed in increasingly outrageous glittery dresses (designed by Ryan Dawson Laight), plays the Marquess with complete conviction. Hayley Grindle’s exquisite set adds to the spectacle and is further enhanced by Robbie Butler’s glorious lighting. This is not an uncomplicated celebration of Paget: taught ‘dressage, oppression, oppressage’ at the ‘Eton School for Posh Boys’, the musical acknowledges that Paget’s extravagance is paired with little concern for the less fortunate or even the people around him. In Davies’ depiction, Paget’s naivety and ignorance become endearingly otherworldly, though his stylised performance leaves the ‘real’ Paget feeling elusive. To me, Matthew Blake steals the show, playing an impressive variety of characters, from Paget’s bisexual wife Lillian to an unforgiving Eton schoolmaster and a Daily Mail journalist a.k.a the Devil himself. While none of these characters are fleshed out in the script, Blake’s performance makes them instantly entertaining.

Davies and Blake are not the only actors on stage: the five-head band (musical director Dylan Townley) is perfectly choreographed and clearly engaged in the story, whether they are playing or not. Their instrumentals are sleek and upbeat, and their unfailing energy carries the show. Not all the songs in the show are memorable but ‘Mainstream Entertainment’ was an instant hit with the audience and is still stuck in my head the next day.

The show tells Paget’s life story in a clear-cut chronological order, though we are given a summary of what happens to him in the opening song. This rendered the story’s trajectory rather predictable, and leaving just a little bit more to the audience to discover themselves would have easily remedied this.

Viewers should not expect a careful examination of late Victorian England or a close look at the ‘real’ Marquess. Instead, strap in for an hour-and-a-half whirlwind of a spectacle, almost as over-the-top as Henry Cyril Paget himself.

Tag Archives: Francesca Moody Productions

GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS

★★★★★

Arts Theatre

GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS

Arts Theatre

★★★★★

“a show of sparkling brilliance”

GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS

Arts Theatre

Reviewed on 3rd November 2025

by Louis Sibley

Photography by Matt Crockett (main images) Jeff Moore (outdoor images)

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE CHOIR OF MAN | ★★★★★ | October 2025

PORNO | ★★★ | November 2023

THE CHOIR OF MAN | ★★★★ | October 2022

THE CHOIR OF MAN | ★★★★★ | November 2021

Garry Starr

Garry Starr

Garry Starr

HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an hour-and-a-half whirlwind of a spectacle”