Emily Watson Howes '07 - Umbrella Birds
Umbrella Birds
**** The Scotsman
CLAIRE SMITH
E4 UDDERBELLY'S PASTURE (VENUE 300)
THE ubiquitous Mark Watson turns up at the meeting point outside the purple cow to guide us to the venue, a Portakabin public toilet parked up in George Square.
But this show isn't about him, it's about his missus - aka Emily Watson Howes - who has written and performs in an all-girl sketch show set in a ladies' loo. It's an intimate affair that only ten audience members can see at once; while it sounds like a novelty show, though, the setting is actually a brilliant way of stringing together a series of sketches for a female cast.
Characters arrive, interact, and then leave again - just as they would do in a real toilet. A woman comes in to carry out a pregnancy test, a middle-class mother reassures her daughter after a dreadful play and, funniest of all, a stand-up comedienne, rehearsing for her first gig, enlists the help of a stranger to give her a crash course in how to deal with hecklers. There's also a strung-out Egyptologist, a traffic warden who's a mine of misleading celebrity gossip, and a couple of mini-storylines involving a charity mugger and a girl in a chicken outfit.
There's a fantastic cast of characters here, and with tight writing, strong characterisation and snappy delivery, the sketches are laugh-out-loud funny. An hour on a hard seat in a Portakabin is uncomfortable, but I'm already looking forward to telling people in a few years' time: "I saw Emily Watson Howes performing in a toilet in Edinburgh back in 2007."
Until 27 August. Today 4pm
20 August 2007
**** The Scotsman
CLAIRE SMITH
E4 UDDERBELLY'S PASTURE (VENUE 300)
THE ubiquitous Mark Watson turns up at the meeting point outside the purple cow to guide us to the venue, a Portakabin public toilet parked up in George Square.
But this show isn't about him, it's about his missus - aka Emily Watson Howes - who has written and performs in an all-girl sketch show set in a ladies' loo. It's an intimate affair that only ten audience members can see at once; while it sounds like a novelty show, though, the setting is actually a brilliant way of stringing together a series of sketches for a female cast.
Characters arrive, interact, and then leave again - just as they would do in a real toilet. A woman comes in to carry out a pregnancy test, a middle-class mother reassures her daughter after a dreadful play and, funniest of all, a stand-up comedienne, rehearsing for her first gig, enlists the help of a stranger to give her a crash course in how to deal with hecklers. There's also a strung-out Egyptologist, a traffic warden who's a mine of misleading celebrity gossip, and a couple of mini-storylines involving a charity mugger and a girl in a chicken outfit.
There's a fantastic cast of characters here, and with tight writing, strong characterisation and snappy delivery, the sketches are laugh-out-loud funny. An hour on a hard seat in a Portakabin is uncomfortable, but I'm already looking forward to telling people in a few years' time: "I saw Emily Watson Howes performing in a toilet in Edinburgh back in 2007."
Until 27 August. Today 4pm
20 August 2007
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