From August 2010
I'm on my way up the stairs to the Pleasance Ace Dome when this American geezer stops me and asks if I'm part of the show. Do I look like I'm part of the fucking show? I say. Well, no, he says but ...
Anyway we get talking and the American bloke says that he's seen 60 - six zero - show on this year's Edinburgh Fringe and it's only been going a week. Fuck me, I'm thinking, is this man on drugs? Because I am, I'm out of my head on weed & coke, me, and there's no danger I could sit through that much culture even with artificial stimulation.
By this time we're in the theatre so I goes & gets me a large brandy, sits down at the old Joanna and starts singing about love. Well, love & prostitutes & seagulls. But the lighting engineer makes an arse of things and the audience can't hardly see me half the time.
And in this vein Lovesong performed by nu-soul singer Omar Lyefook continues for another 45 minutes. It's not that it's bad, I just expected greater things from the star of last year's Been So Long. The plot is a mélange of About A Boy, Casablanca & Trainspotting and it doesn't take too long to understand why no one else has attempted this.
No doubt about it though: Omar has a beautiful voice. Perhaps next year he should just stick to the songs.
Lovesong, Pleasance Ace Dome, until 21st August