REVIEW: Wild Bore, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe ✭✭✭

Wild Bore 

Traverse Theatre

10 August 2017

3 Stars

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Well, here's the thing. A show created from terrible reviews, both aimed at the performers and collated from reviews, now has to be reviewed. I suddenly become aware that anything I say may end up in the show!

Let's get the fact that the performers use their backsides to talk out of when quoting critics, because, of course, we talk out of our asses,  out of the way ! And some vicious reviews are shared with the audience. But Zoe Coombs Marr, Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott now own this material and have created a cathartic and anarchic show that has many laugh out loud moments.

The show is fun, and has much to say about meta theatre and meta criticism, and anyone who has created theatre will enjoy the references, and the performers send themselves and critics up brilliantly. However, the ass joke becomes over used and a little tedious, and some gags begin to lose their impact. A slightly shorter show would have been more effective.

There's a really good intervention by a fourth character, who throws a new light on the show, and is on point about current trends, privilege and the Traverse programming itself. (It would be a shame to give it away.) And the piece ends with a hilarious pastiche of theatrical genres and a reclaiming of those bad reviews. Far from the worst thing on the Fringe!

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