The Trials of Galileo, Greenside @ Infirmary Street.

Galileo sits alone, surrounded by papers and his beloved home-made telescope – x32 magnification would you believe! He puts on a brave face but he is a broken man, as he tells us about his trial by the Inquisition, the falsification of documents to be used against him, and the duplicity of the Pope. Tim Hardy won Best Actor for this performance at last year’s Buxton Fringe and I’m not at all surprised. It’s a fantastic performance, providing us a flowing, natural story-telling that involves us intimately in his plight; aided by a superb text written by Nic Young. It’s fascinating to reflect from today’s perspective that questioning the science of the universe equalled heresy, for which the punishment was severe beyond our comprehension. A gripping story, deftly told. A superb way to start the day!

Burned Out, The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall.

Becky is a hard-working, diligent nurse, who’ll put herself out for anyone. Respected by her colleagues and the local community, she nevertheless doesn’t earn enough for her 60-80 working hours a week to feed her family without having to resort to the local foodbank. When a local business is sold to Lee Woodcock, an entrepreneur, because it can’t make money, he stops its regular contributions to the foodbank; and when Becky discovers there is hardly any food available to her and people like her, she, along with Michael, one of Lee’s disgruntled ex-employees, decide to take the matter into their own hands. There’s no doubt that the play comes from a good place, and has an important story to tell. However, it felt over-ambitious with the number of themes it was trying to handle, and didn’t quite succeed to do any of them justice; and some of the plot developments stretched credulity. The actor who plays Becky is extremely convincing; some of the other acting is a little patchy. I wanted this to be better.

The Great Ruckus, Pleasance Courtyard.

Jo and Ida’s mother has died – and we witness the first few days of their coping with grief. We also meet their wider family and associates, and they’re all a dysfunctional bunch. As they all pull each other apart, the production is accompanied by projections of grotesque caricatures of the people and locations involved. This was a hard watch; not because of the subject matter, but because it is a relentless bombardment of words; there is too much to take in and make sense of it before the story moves on, and, personally, I found it alienating and tiring to follow. It probably doesn’t help that the characters are, on the whole, so unlikeable. I’m sure other people will get more out of this show, but it wasn’t for me.

Pitch, Pleasance Courtyard.

Five players, five goals: to play football, meet new people, get fit, support each other, and go to the pub. Pitch is a celebration of the relationship between football and the queer community – something that’s perhaps even more relevant than ever, following the Qatar World Cup. Kate, Aimee, Clo and Squid encourage new player Bill to join their team – the Muddy Studs – because they’re looking for flesh blood in the midfield. He lacks a bit of confidence but that will come with time. The team is a safe space for queer players, but, even then, they still come up against moments of homophobia that throw them off their tracks. Five very likeable performers play five very engaging and likeable characters; November Theatre are looking to expand and develop the play and take it on tour in 2024. As it stands, it does need that development, because the play is fine as far as it goes – but at the moment it doesn’t go quite far enough. Nevertheless, it’s still an enjoyable and heartwarming show – and there are some fairly nifty football skills on display too!

Stuntman, Summerhall.

Well, there’s no denying the commitment and physical strength of these two guys – they must have cores of steel! David and Sadiq pace predatorially around each other in front of blazing lights as they fight, shoot, attack, knife and undertake all other forms of combat with each other with the regular cry of Welcome to Hell Motherf*cker! or something similar. In an exploration of men’s relationship with violence, the show reveals how men can cause each other immense pain and injury (as well as numerous methods of killing) but are also capable of showing tenderness and support to each other. If there is a message to be taken from the show it’s that there is always an alternative to violence, no matter what the problem may be. It’s an arresting hour of entertainment, and David Banks and Sadiq Ali hardly ever stay still for more than a second or two, and whatever they do, they do compellingly and with precision skill. I do hope they have access to good shower facilities after the show!

Little Ward of Horrors, The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall.

Performed by medical students from St. George’s Tooting, Little Ward of Horrors is a medical sketch show, and, like most sketch shows, is a bit of a hit and miss affair. Unfortunately, the misses do rather drastically outweigh the hits, and, when the directors of the show came on stage at the end and said the cast only had a week to write and rehearse the whole thing, because of the pressure of their studies, I’m afraid it shows. No wish to be cruel, but there are thousands of great shows out there on the Fringe vying for your ticket money, and I don’t think you get your bang for your buck here. With about five of the twenty-five or so sketches making me laugh, that equals a 20% success rate, which explains my star rating.