TALK RADIO - E4 Udderbelly (Friday 4th August)
The last few years have seen a play blow the Edinburgh audiences away. There's been "Twelve Angry Men", "Cuckoo's Nest", "The Odd Couple" and this year's buzz is undoubtedly going to be about the Stewart Lee directed "Talk Radio"
Written by, and originally starring, Eric Bogosian, the play tells the story of two hours in 1985 at WTLK, Cleveland Ohio's premier talk radio station and in particular the last local show by star Barry Champlain before he goes national to over 250 stations in the US and Canada the next evening.
Canadian comedian Phil Nichol has been in the previous success stories but this time round he has the lead and is ably supported by every single other cast member, which includes Stephen K Amos (who, along with Nichol is basically on stage the whole time), Mike McShane and Tony Law. When you hear all the voices and characters throughout the production, it's mesmerising to think that it's all the work of the seven very talented actors involved.
The intensity that Nichol brings to the role of Champlain is immense. He makes the part so much his that you are convinced that you are watching Barry Champlin himself and not an actor playing a role. He adds so much believability to the role that for those seventy-five minutes he shares with you, Champlin is real and we are voyeuristically going through his frustrations and anxieties with him.
The production is split between the calls from the usual suspects of crackpots, the stubborn opinionated, the fawning, the angry and those that just don't get it, and a selection of monologues that show the emotional vulnerability and other side of Champlin that the listeners don't get to see, but we the viewers do.
As the production moves to it's explosive climax, you want to be able to tune in again and again. You want more and yet you wonder why? But then that's the whole point of talk radio, isn't it? If you took a step back and analyzed what you were actually listening to, you wouldn't want to tune in. Would you?
This is certainly one of the highlights of the Fringe this year. If you can only manage through to see a few things, then this has to be right up there at the top of your list.
Superlatives don't do it justice. Just go see it for yourself.
BDH Rating: 5 / 5
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