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ED2012 3/5 Reviews ED2012 Theatre Reviews
CountryBoy’s Struggle (Contact and Maxwell Golden)
By Andy Leask | Published on Friday 31 August 2012
Hip hop theatre can work, and when it does it delivers a visceral, gripping experience. Unfortunately for MC CountryBoy, this one misfires as often as it succeeds. Maxwell Golden’s rapping is excellent – the performances he delivers as MC CountryBoy are definite highlights – and he is a tremendously lyrical performer. The problem doesn’t lie with the hip hop, then, but the theatre. The bits connecting his performances are less impressive; his physical overacting is distracting and the thinly drawn characters are caricatures. That may be a result of excessive ambition: cramming over 40 characters into an hour-long one man show may be pushing it, especially as 39 of them are diverting us from the focus of the show.
Pleasance Courtyard, 1-27 Aug (not 13), 2.35pm.
tw rating 3/5 | [Andrew Leask]
