HHHH VENUE: TIME:
TICKETS:
Bedlam Theatre 8:00pm – 9:00pm 3–28 Aug, not 16 £10
Stack is Stackard Banks – the insufferably twattish, wildly watchable and strangely likeable explorer-cum-documentary filmmaker spewed from the mind of writer-performer Ed MacArthur. Framed as a self-referential Edinburgh Fringe show, this musical comedy purports to document his noble, neo-colonial journey into the Heart of Darkness as he sets out to rescue a remote African tribe from the perils of the Amazonian rainforest. Slickly intercutting live narration with music and prerecorded character voices—including stock interview footage of Sting, who
Credit: James Deacon
Stack
comes along for the ride and offers bland new-age truisms in the face of each plot twist—Stack raucously skewers white saviorism, the gung-ho masculinity of frog-licking TV presenters seeking authentic immersion in exotic cultures, and the earnest spiritualism of anyone who’s ever gap-yah’ed south of the equator to “find themselves”. The story itself is an increasingly farcical pastiche of all the above, as Stack finds himself married to the tribe chief’s daughter, hooked on the local hallucinogen and heralded as a pant-shitting prophet – as well as embroiled in a sinister plot in-
volving, of course, some diamonds. It’s wittily written, generously performed and features genuinely impressive tech – all of which have the audience guffawing throughout. Inevitably though, at times there’s something unshakably uncomfortable about white performers parodying orientalist fears and fantasies, however knowing and undoubtedly funny the reference point is. Stack unashamedly crosses a few lines in its own quest for laughs, but it’s for the most part forgivable given MacArthur’s madcap energy, intuitive comic timing and whip-smart script. ✏︎ Billy Barrett
performance at least—it seems to enjoy every second. Music lulls us as the anonymous baby giggles, gurgles, chews, bites and dribbles. Though it is the most ordinary of scenes, this feels like we’re being let into a secret. It provides an almost therapeutic opportunity to escape the chaos of the Fringe and to reflect on a period of life that disappears so quickly. The audience comes out beaming as wide as the baby has been, a shared tenderness between us. In this terrifying world, Come Look at
the Baby is a bubble of protection, a display of a life as yet unharmed. It is an honour to simply watch a patient grandmother play with her growing grandchild, teaching it and talking to it, oozing with adoration. It’s all we all want isn’t it, to be loved? In the context of the Fringe, this show is a delight. Outside of this chaotic festival however, watching a cute baby is something audiences might rather reserve for paid babysitting. ✏︎ Kate Wyver
Come Look at the Baby HHHH VENUE:
TIME:
TICKETS:
Just the Tonic at The Community Project 11:00am – 11:30am 4–28 Aug, not 10, 15, 22 £2 –£4
Whether it’s a joke, an ingenious way to make money from babysitting or a clever piece of performance art, Come Look at the Baby is a genuine pleasure. A chubby child with a shining smile that drips with spit sits on its granny’s knee, and we watch. We coo, laugh and gasp as if at a fireworks display. We are utterly in the palm of its plump little hand, and, though clueless that it’s the centre of a show—in this particular