Broadway Baby. Brighter Coverage of the Edinburgh, Brighton and London Fringe Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter
surround-top
surround-shadow-left

Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut

643
Venue Number 14. Gilded Balloon Teviot, Teviot Row House,13 Bristo Square , EH8 9AJ. 3-27 August 17:15 (1 hour). Suitability: U.
Broadway Baby Rating:

A lovingly disrespectful homage to one of the classic films of all time. Casablanca has some of the most iconic scenes and best lines ever written, so why not play it again?

Venue:Gilded Balloon
Year:2012
Genre:Theatre
Production Company:Gilded Balloon / Tron Theatre
URL:http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/casablanca-the-gin-joint-cut
BROADWAY BABY REVIEW

Play it Again, Sam.

Broadway Baby Rating:
Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut comes to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with a strong pedigree and reputation, built on its debut as part of Glasgow’s Òran Mór’s iconic A Play, A Pie and A Pint and its subsequent success at the Tron Theatre and elsewhere in Scotland. As a result, few other Fringe shows this year will have such a lavishly detailed (albeit still small) set, nor such an accomplished trio of actors who each bring the right level of humour and seriousness to this classic story of lost and rekindled love.

Set within the framework of a small theatrical company presenting an adaptation of the iconic film, this is part-homage, part all-out spoof, but possibly done with slightly more love than the West End’s re-imagining of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. So, following some initial banter between the performers — with Clare Waugh clearly desperate to get out by impressing a big agent rumoured to be in that evening’s performance — it’s on with the show. Casablanca, 1941: Nazi Germany has overrun most of Europe. Rick (performed with an impeccable impersonation by Gavin Mitchell) runs a café bar that welcomes any and every lost soul — from petty criminals to refugees and anti-Nazi rebels looking for safe passage out of Europe to America. The latest in the latter camp is the escaped resistance leader Victor Laszlo, and his wife Ilsa, Rick’s ex-lover in Paris from just before the city fell to the Nazis.

While Mitchell plays Rick throughout, the other main characters are shared by Waugh and a necessarily light-footed Jimmy Chisholm — with chaotic-looking costume changes only heightening the fun. The frustrations of working within such limitations are ably expressed through a host of physical and verbal comic flourishes — never overplayed — including a few digs at the smoking ban which so distinguishes modern Scotland from the golden age of Hollywood.

At only one hour, the show necessarily edits the film down, but it keeps the story’s emotional keystones intact and the audience is left with no doubt that the whole enterprise is done with real love and affection for the original. Clearly, everyone involved believes this is a story worth retelling. So, to misquote the film: Play it again, Sam.

Reviewer:
Paul F Cockburn
Paul F Cockburn has written 47 reviews for Broadway Baby since joining the team in 2012.
VENUE LOCATION
Want to add your own review?
Login above using Facebook to review this show. We really appreciate you sharing your opinions, however please make them honest and your own. That means don't review your own show, or paste in a review of your show from another site. We'll only have to delete them, and for persistent offenders we'll need to delete your listing entirely. It's ok to disagree with our reviewer's opinion, but personal attacks will be deleted. We insist on Facebook registration as a measure to limit the amount of fake reviews on Broadway Baby. Thanks for your understanding!
surround-shadow-right

Design & code: WE Theatre | Green hosting Rochen Host


Copyright Web Editors Ltd, 1996-2013 | Terms & Conditions Scroll To Top