Paul T Davies reviews Being Frank now playing at The Space On North Bridge at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Being Frank
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
12 August 2019
4 Tickets
Popular company The Orange Works return to the Fringe with a new play by Ian Tucker Bell that explores male mental health. Men are certainly talking at the festival this year, and this is a welcome addition. Frank's son Alex is having a crisis, and Frank doesn't know how to deal with it Via a device of the author, (a lovely performance by Philip Holden), asking the actors to help him tell the story, non communication between men is deftly handled. All of the characters are based on real people, and it shows in the sensitivity of the piece. Alex and Frank are encouraged to put together a bookcase, and that provides a comforting space for them to connect. I felt that the piece was a little short, that it feels like the beginning of a conversation, but the music moved many audience members. It could have been harder hitting, but I don't think that is the company's style Tucker Bell us to be commended also for putting older gay characters on stage, and this play is well worth a visit.
Paul is a playwright, director, actor, academic, (he has a PhD from the University of East Anglia), teacher and theatre reviewer! His plays include Living with Luke, (UK tour 2016), Play Something, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Drayton Arms Theatre, London 2018), , (2019), and now The Miner’s Crow, which won the inaugural Artist’s Pick of the Fringe Award at the first ever Colchester Fringe Festival 2021. In lockdown 2020 he created the audio series Isolation Alan, available on Youtube, and performed online in the Voice Box Festival. He is the founder member of Stage Write, a Colchester based theatre company, and his acting roles include Rupert in How We Love by Annette Brook, first performed at the Vaults Festival 2020 and revived at the Arcola and at Theatre Peckham in 2021. Follow: @stagewrite_
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