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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Count Arthur Strong's The Greatest Story Ever Told
Verdict: Wine tasting for the Last Supper
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon - August 03
The celebrated Doncaster intellectual and president of its resident drama school ('They say it's as good as the Rada'), Count Arthur Strong, tonight turns his attention to the Bible.
And who better? As Taster of Communion Wine to the Doncaster Anglican Diocese, the Count carries an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Good Book in his sadly forgetful memory. Not that it's anything to do with going to the pub. ('Restaurant. Hotel. They serve food.')
And what a remarkable story The Greatest Story Ever Told turns out to be. Quite the most unusual version of the creation - debunking the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, or as the Count calls him, Charles Dance - is followed by a painstaking fruit-analysis of the eviction from the Garden Of Eden.
Count Arthur shows the technique for tasting (a lot) of altar wine (no spitting out). There's a magnificent reenactment of the Last Supper, using Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. The Count performs this single-handed, having previously staged a version with celebrities including Pete Murray, and Mathew Corbett, who insisted on Sooty playing Judas Iscariot.
The Count is an enormous man, tall as a mountain, with hunched shoulders and a pair of glasses hanging down his back. He's elegantly dressed in a dinner jacket and trousers, with black shoes - every inch a gentleman.
It's sharp, extremely well-written material, breathtakingly funny, and fairly blasphemous. An hour of reckless delight.
Credits (alpha order): The elderly Count Arthur Strong is assisted by the much younger actor Steve Delaney. Technicals, Philip - Gilded Balloon.
END
John Park
reviewed Friday 22 August 03 / Edinburgh / Gilded Balloon Wine Bar
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
