Paul T Davies reviews Diana The Untold and Untrue Story playing at the Pleasance Dome as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.
Diana The Untold and Untrue Story
Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Fringe
4 Stars
Awkward Productions stage this gloriously satirical alternative story of Diana, Queen of Hearts, as she talks to us from Heaven! Highly irreverent, there are jokes aplenty at the Monarchy, all played with a cheeky, knowing look at the audience, who play various parts throughout the show. Just as your mind is questioning exactly what you've just heard, it's on to the next filthy gag! It works so well because it satirises Diana's sainthood as well as the Royals.
Linus Karp IS Diana, the voice, the look on point. Interactive on-screen, Geri Allen is an astonishing Olivia Colman-type Queen Elizabeth, saying things we've never heard her say! Joseph Martin voices Charles and God is a luminous Zina Barden.
Camilla is a wicked creation, and perhaps overplayed a little, but with superb audience participation, this is a raucous production and highly recommended!
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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