Paul T Davies reviews Rob Ward's The MP Aunty Mandy and Me now playing at the Pleasance Dome as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.
The MP Aunty Mandy and Me.
Pleasance Dome
Edinburgh Fringe
(TOUR SCHEDULE BELOW)
4 Stars
A new play from Rob Ward, writer of Gypsy Queen, and here performed by him, is always worth seeing, and here is a tale of Dom, the only gay in a very small village, desperate to be Insta famous, and a fan of steam trains. "Dom by name not by nature." When his local station is threatened with closure, he goes to see his local MP, who turns out to also be gay, and an internship, a secret affair and an introduction to the world of leather and fetishism unfolds .
Ward is an excellent performer, telling his tale with style and panache. There are some sharp one-liners, and he vocally makes clear distinctions between his characters, whose situation is complicated by the arrival of a bisexual member of the election campaign team. The hypocrisy of those in power is perfectly captured, and the way the class system picks up and throws away working-class people.
The Aunt Mandy of the title is the MDNA that his mother drops instead of alcohol, and I felt this part of the story wasn't really necessary. It doesn't add anything to the plot as the drug is accessed by the MP, and makes the mother a passive character. There's also a long trippy sequence that begins to take the energy out of the play.
However, there is much to enjoy in this hugely thought-provoking, funny, sexy and entertaining play. And if you're in the gay train enthusiast target audience, it's dynamite!
Aug 14, 16-21
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THE MP AUNTY MANDY AND ME TOUR SCHEDULE
Curve - 16th & 17th Sep (on sale soon)
Hope Mill Theatre - 22nd - 25th Sept
Staffordshire University - 27th Sept (on sale soon)
Blackpool Grand - 28th & 29th Sept
Norwich Theatre Royal - 12th Oct
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre - 14th & 15th Oct
Dukes Lancaster - 21st Oct (on sale soon)
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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