Fringe reviews

I'm halfway through my Fringe activities, which this year smack strongly of gayness, for no known reason.

Simon Amstell (a youngish gay Jewish comedian) had a show called 'No Self' in which he discussed the break-up of a two-year love affair reflected through some reading of Buddhist texts and his experience of the Thai tsunami. He questions how to extend compassion to all when he feels compassion towards specific people and how to expunge his self when he's trapped in his own body and mind. Join the club, Simon! The Big Wan laughed a lot during this, partly through schadenfreude because two other comedians that he doesn't favour (Jimmy Carr and Justin Lee Collins) received the less compassionate side of Simon's tongue.

The Bacchae was staged in a favourite rococco theatre, the King's, with a minimalist gyre-shaped set and some great pyrotechnics, costumes and cast. The Bacchae (female followers of Dionysus) were all beautiful and full-voiced black actors. I liked the music a lot. Dionysus (Alan Cumming) was dressed in a gorgeous cloth-of-gold kilt and waistcoat which reminded me very much of a dress I made myself in my early 20s. However, it must have been 30 degrees C plus up in the gods where we sat, and uncomfortably hot for a pale northerner like me. After 1.5 hrs without an interval I was close to passing out, so made my excuses and left. Themes that seemed to be developed were the mysteriousness and fickleness of women, family conflict, and dealing with capricious and jealous gods. It doesn't have a happy ending, I hear.

We saw the LadyBoys of Bangkok on Sunday with a group of friends after a particularly good Thai meal to celebrate Alex's birthday. I haven't been before but we were all well lubricated and enjoyed the double-entendres, immaculate make-up and costumes, lip-synching and cabaret. About 80% of the audience were large hen-type parties of straight women, which surprised me. Maybe we were a sort of hen party too- three straight women and a gay male couple. It was fun because we saw it in company, but after the first song, you get the idea and don't really need to see more.

On Thursday, the gay theme will continue with a visit to see 'Eurobeat', a staging of an ersatz Eurovision song contest. I met my last proper (cohabitant) partner at the Fringe, but somehow I sense that this is unlikely to be repeated this year. This is not necessarily a bad thing.