Holly.txt

http://www.nightnews.net/fringe2008.htm#holly

HollyWould - Holly Burn/Laughing Horse Free Festival
venue :: Laughing Horse @ The Counting House
see links :: http://www.hollyburn.org.uk
category :: Comedy
Reviewed date :: 03 08 08

Review: The lovely Holly Burn, producer, actress and comedienne, is
noslouch judging from her website bio. Onstage she specialises in 
'character comedy' and brought her rather off beat show, 'Hollywould,'
with its rather quaint and unusual characters, to this year’s rather
damp and wet fringe. Holly's show was well attended on the wet day
she enticed me in upstairs at the Counting House. It started funnily
enough as well; Holly's late for her show, brrm brrrm (car mime)
bang! She runs over a dog, now she'll be really late! The show goes
on but the dog comes back from the dead to interrupt, mostly from
offstage! There is a bit of a jokey Russian folk narrative
interwoven into the proceedings and Holly's self-deprecating style
raised a few titters from the audience. Sound effects came mostly
from behind a screen and Holly would disappear behind it from time
to time, though perhaps for too long, emerging as a new character.
Most characters went down quite well though less so, the dog's owner,
a disabled girl, and the dog’s partner, a French poodle bitch.
Holly's development of the narrative was well strung together as 
the story line became taller and more unlikely. Some of the applause
was a little half hearted, but most of the audience were smiling most
of the time. Holly seemed to lose the plot a little towards the end,
as her closing sketch, about invitees to a society ball, involved
disparaging members of the audience, which may have been discomfiting.
As Holly made her last behind screen change, about 30% of the audience
sneaked out which must have been disconcerting when she reappeared.
When the dog was shot offstage I breathed a sigh of relief as the last
10 minutes or so seemed to lose the shows early promise as well as
the support of the audience. Even so, you will pay a lot of money to
see far worst than this at the Fringe and it may be that Holly’s work
may be better suited to broadcasting. Overall, Holly was more 'light
entertainment,' than fully blown comedy in this offering.
3 silver bats

by JC Vassallo