Thursday 9 November 2006

Festival by Annie Griffin

02 Sept

Stephen Mangan who plays Sean Sullivan seems to have based his character on Steve Coogan, or rather the Steve Coogan that Steve Coogan wants to let us see. Festival offers a snapshot of what Edinburgh is although I think it also misrepresents it. It is such a cynical take on the whole affair, how does it end? The unhappily married woman runs away with the pretentious Canadian theatre group except she doesn't end up going and there is somekind of horrific car crash. One-woman show girl (ok, I will admit, there are A LOT of one-woman shows up at the Fringe) ends up with the Steve Coogan, I mean, Sean Sullivan character - unlucky her! Ditsy, big-boobed comediene thinks she's won the award but has it cruelly snatched away. Horrid fat Irish comedian walks away with the prize because he's given This Life's Anna great oral sex. If her intention was to de-mystify the whole Fringe experience than fair enough, everyone from insipid amateur performers to sex-starved comedy award panel gets ripped to shreds. But she doesn't capture the mundaness and exhaustion that comes with going up to the Festival. And what was the point of the dying priest storyline?? It was kind of enjoyable in a fascinating way but also quite disparaging. Why did she need to show the other comedian being sodomised whilst desperately trying to convince himself that he was talented?? I winced quite a lot throughout the film but perhaps it was because I found the Sean Sullivan character utterly repugnant.

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