This show is five monologues written by Robert Crighton. At least, four monologues and a brief comedy drama – The Alternative Seagull – which is itself part monologue, part performance.

There are a lot of good reasons to see the show. It's funny, fast-paced - and when Robert Crighton's script is at its best, it's as good as it (almost) could be. There is a slightly uneven texture in the writing but the troughs aren't deep, the peaks are often in broad sunshine, and the performers make the most of what they're given.

What they are given is slightly surreal fantasy, with an edge of revenge.

Problem Tree is about a father who has had two births, the second of which enables him to escape the First World War. The Examiner of Small Ailments is a healer who takes others' illnesses to himself (but who then discovers cosmetic surgery). The Alternative Seagull is a staged piece, in which actors in a fated production are asked to play The Seagull (1896) by Anton Chekhov (1860- 1904) with - well - something other than a seagull. Bink! has a lonely child talking to her house. Teaching Gods, a suitably eccentric finale, brings some rather arbitrary space travellers to a grey, but typical university campus, wreaking havoc with those who - mostly - deserve to suffer.

How funny are they? There is plenty to smile at, but not so many laugh-out-loud moments, though laughter can be infectious. This show is part pure comedy and part inventive drama, and so has a depth that perhaps neither form can reach by itself. Mostly, the night is about Robert Crighton who also performs - alone in The Examiner and Teaching Gods - and he performs with great energy and no little charm. But he is very ably supported, in particular by Catherine Eccles who comes alive in Bink!.

All of these pieces have a little of the Brothers Grimm (1785-1863, and 1786-1859), some Monty Python (1969-) and a lot of just Robert Crighton. Teaching Gods would be well viewed after a drink, before a bigger one and some cheese, in celebration perhaps of strange dreams and the campus cat.

The scripts can be bought at www.lulu.com.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Robert Crighton. Catherine Eccles. Simon Nader.

Company Credits: Writer - Robert Crighton. Director - uncredited. Lighting Designer - uncredited. Sound Designer - uncredited. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - Milk Bottle Productions.

END

(c) Michael Spring 2009

reviewed Tuesday 28 July 2009 / Barons Court Theatre, London UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com