The Village Idiots
Hotel de Mer
Following sell-out successes here in 2005 and despite another hectic filming schedule for Harry Potter, our favourite Idiots return with a brand new show. They still have one ambition: to keep the mantle of British mask theatre burning bright at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Hotel Babylon meets Fawlty Towers as this down-at-heel seaside hostelry suffers delusions of grandeur. Mishap and Mayhem abound as the building disintegrates, inept staff pacify dissatisfied guests and an over-zealous hotel inspector threatens closure. Can the bumbling bell-boy save the day? Find out in this fabulous full-mask family comedy.
Performances:
14th to 19th August
Price:
£6.00 (£4.00) »
All at Sea
Imagine Fawlty Towers meets Belleville
Rendezvous with music, mime and masks! This is a riot of references and caricatures, right from the moment when Henry the Hoover appears bearing the legend “Basil” and continues in Pantomime mode with Randy the Repair Man and Buttons the Bellhop.
Village idiots ring all the changes on their theme with every whacky staff member and hotel guest rolling through the door on just the day that the hotel inspector is due to call. Sybil or her imposing near equivalent, as the Manageress, orders a quick dust and clean and 5 minute retraining programme in honour of the inspector. We are all sure that disaster will ensue well before the inspector shows up, as the cook (surely a mix of Sesame streets Swedish chef meets “A Life of Grime”) tentatively tenders dubious refreshments and terrible things start to happen in the lift.
The cocktail is pepped with happy snapping kids, thieving grannies, henpecked husbands and loves true, false and unrequited. They say words are only 7% of all communication and Village Idiots dispense with them almost entirely, while still packing loaded messages into their brilliant masks and moves. Watch out for the air stewardesses’ rendition of “Come Fly with Me!” Must see!
Janet Saunders