Paul T Davies reviews Square Go at Roundabout at Summerhall at Edinburgh Fringe
Square Go Roundabout at Summerhall, Edinburgh Fringe
20 August 2018
5 Stars
Max is a normal kid in a small town, a daydreamer who hangs about with his wierd pal Stevie. Then Max is called for his first Square Go, a fight by the school gates, and called to by school hard man Danny Guthrie. The genius of the play by Keiran Hurley and Gary McNair, and the production directed by Finn den Hartog, is that it's presented as a wrestling event.
As Max, Scott Fletcher captures perfectly teen awkwardness, and he is matched by the equally excellent Gavin Jon Wright as Stevie. Their fake macho swagger is hilarious, and I've rarely experienced the Roundabout audience as fired up as they are for this show! From thumb wrestling, to arm wrestling, (with a member of the audience), to the boys wrestling, you could power the Fringe with the energy created In that tent! A superb soundtrack by Frightened Rabbit thrums under the action, and the adrenaline flows throughout the hour. It is the perfect show for this venue!
The script also punctures machoism, and the pointlessness of it all. It's a hugely enjoyable production, one that will stay with you for a long time!
BOOK NOW FOR SQUARE GO
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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