YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2017 5/5 Reviews ED2017 Comedy Reviews
Elf Lyons: Swan (Mick Perrin Worldwide in association with Dawn Sedgwick Management)
By Louise Jones | Published on Tuesday 22 August 2017
Elf Lyons tears down the snobbery surrounding ballet in this hysterical tour de force. She emerges in a cloud of talcum powder and conducts her retelling of ‘Swan Lake’ in Franglais, keeping her parrot costume on the entire time. The show is part lesson, part recital, with a pseudo-serieuse persona that allows her to deliver incredibly fresh and funny takes on the Tchaikovsky classic. Each sequence comes with audience interaction to help Lyons recreate a low-budget ballet of her own, with swift storytelling and an unflappably energetic stage presence. Her ability to don character archetypes and give them a thorough dressing-down in the same breath is remarkable. It’s adaptation on another level, clowning at its most accessible, and just amazing.
Underbelly Med Quad, until 28 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Louise Jones]
