Reviews

Therry’s latest offering, Glorious! pays homage to the surprisingly successful career of the late Florence Foster Jenkins. Playwright Peter Quilter journeys through the later part of her success in the 1940s leading up to her sold-out show at Carnegie Hall.

What makes Jenkins’ story so unique is the enthusiasm and confidence she possessed despite her lack of talent; she is remembered by many as ‘the worst opera singer who ever lived’- or died…pun intended.

Unwieldy. Def: Awkward and cumbersome. To use in a sentence: “Unwieldy Is one of those words that is not only hard to spell, it also is the perfect word to describe the title of this deceptively cutesy-sounding play”.

This is the first viewing of this show for this reviewer, but it has been on the list for quite some time, due to the cult status it has attained in recent years. The show’s glowing reputation is totally justified - it’s a deliciously sharp and relatable satire. Spoiler alert regarding the plot: it’s about a spelling bee!

Whether you are Fringe Binging or just having small tastes of Fringe World, having a varied diet is key to having a healthy outlook. Whether your usual tastes run to theatre, music, cabaret or comedy, I highly recommend spicing up your Fringe experience with a trip to The Escape Room:- The Speakeasy.

Through dimly lit stairways and passages chillingly lined with black plastic, groups of twenty triaged ‘patients’ are led into the dreamy, delusionary miasma and hazy treatment wards of an off-the-grid sanatorium. Here, led by an obsessive clinician known only as The Doctor, a team of eccentric medical recruits ghoulishly prepare to share some unconventional therapies based on bizarre research and questionable experiments.