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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Cheese and Pineapple Club
Verdict: Talent on the way up
Sarah Campbell & Grainne Maguire welcome with cheese and pineapple on sticks. There's an imaginative and engaging set - a front room all ready for a party with hat-stand, table, tacky magazines hidden away, and The Wasteland casually left on a beanbag. Cheese and pineapple paraphernalia complete the kitsch.
It's themed on a house-party and structured in three sections: Awkwardness, Booze, Consequences. Connection with the audience works well. Sarah Campbell's awkward small-talk with people is suitably stilted, but banter could perhaps be stronger.
The booze only goes to one lucky person - 'because of the budget' - a rather endearing reference to the plight of most Edinburgh shows. Building on this, Sarah Campbell's stand-up set shows vivid potential - such as her sequence on meeting people at parties and how to cope when you've forgotten their name.
Grainne Maguire's set is less consistent but punctuated with inspired moments such as Emily Bronte's drunken love-letter (the 19th Century equivalent of texting) 'How I esteem yooooouuu'.
The strongest part of the show is Sarah Campbell's sharp satire on cheap magazines - juxtaposing their titles - 'Chat!', 'Love It!' - with their headlines: 'Both my breasts rotted', 'Raped because I was ugly'. This very effective observational comedy with an edge could definitely be a direction of travel for this talented duo.
The Love subsection of Consequences has Grainne Maguire leaping into the audience to flirt with a target identified on the way in - which is fun - and a well-observed section 'someone finds an acoustic guitar and thinks they can play it' - reflecting a party everyone's been to.
Rapport between the pair seems a bit lacking tonight but, firing on all cylinders, they are not wrong to bill themselves as the friendliest show on the fringe. It's a fun way to fill an early-evening slot and to see talent on the way up.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Sarah Campbell. Grainne Maguire.
Company Credits: Writer - Sarah Campbell & Grainne Maguire. Director - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - Cheese and Pineapple.
END
(c) Ruth Stanley 2008
reviewed on Wednesday 13 August 2008 at 17:15 performance / Belly Laugh @ Underbelly
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012