The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!
As part of our Edinburgh Fringe coverage, Playbill is seeing a whole lotta shows—and we're sharing which ones you absolutely must see if you're only at the Fringe for a short amount of time. Consider these Playbill Picks a friendly, opinionated guide as you try to choose a show at the festival.
Mark Thomas has some daddy issues. Or at least he does in England & Son, Ed Edwards' searing new solo play that has Thomas (usually a comedian) starring as a blue collar British man telling of his journey from juvenile to juvenile delinquent.
All he wants—he tells us in the frank, confessional-style narrative—is for his dad to rustle his hair in approval, something he gets when he successfully recalls details and punch lines from his pop's many wistful war stories. But that's not the only trick he's expected to perform. Also vital to live up to dad's expectations is excellence at school ("Education is the only way out") and a patriotic love for the country he fought to defend ("When you buy a car, England chipped in first!").
But there's a few wrinkles. It turns out dad might not be quite as honorable as he seems at first glance. He has an (at best) loose relationship with employment and a troubling habit of screaming at his wife—or worse. And, it turns out, those romantic stories of battles won and hard-nosed drill sergeants might not be as truthful as they appeared.
England & Son is a story of the infection of colonialism, a national sin that rots the tree from its highest branches to its lowest-hanging fruit. Our narrator struggles with the guilt of not living up to his dear old dad's expectations, only to discover there's untold stories of what his father and his compadres were up to in British Malaya in the years following World War II.
Suddenly his disconnect with right and wrong, to any sense of moral ethics, comes into focus. What's a little petty theft when your country has a storied history of doing far worse on a way larger scale? Or as Thomas' character says referencing his father's delusional axiom, "When you steal a car, England stole it first."
The performance is a departure for Thomas, an artist known for his political commentary as a comedian. That also makes him uniquely suited to the role, written expressly for him by Edwards. While the story is ultimately harrowing and tragic, Thomas imbues his character with unique charm and wit that makes the play feel like you're being told the story over a few pints at the pub.
He even periodically breaks the fourth wall, acknowledging the audience around him. In most others' hands, it would cheapen the proceedings. But Thomas uses it to draw his character even more realistically, charming us into joining him on the ride even as it grows darker and darker.
Edwards' tale involves some British political history that might be slightly foreign to international audience members. But that shouldn't be a barrier to understanding the work. England (to say nothing of the United States)'s dark history of colonialism is well known, as is its many atrocities. One needn't have detail-level knowledge of British Malaya to understand the horrors. After all, what country hasn't been affected by colonialism?
England & Son is a fantastic play, but maybe even moreso a fantastic performance. It's not watching Thomas' character's life disintegrate that makes the work moving—it's watching him live the pain and anguish of wanting to be different, wanting to be better, and ultimately realizing that breaking the cycle is all but out of his hands—as it has been for generation after stained generation.
I think we're likely to see England & Son continue on to more stages after Fringe. It already has runs set for HOME in Manchester and London's Arcola Theatre following the festival.
But the piece would be in great shape for a West End transfer too. This is a big reason why people love going to Fringe. You can get a front row seat to tomorrow's hot ticket, in this case watching a world-class performance where you're seldom more than a few feet away from Thomas. There isn't a seat in Summerhall's Roundabout that isn't premium seating.
The performance is a triumph, telling a harrowing and eventually quite dark story, somehow, with a wink and a smile. It's the kind of play that sticks with you after you've left the theatre, more than apt for a work asking us to consider the reverberations of sins committed generations ago.
England & Son is running at Summerhall's Roundabout through August 27. For tickets, click here.
