by ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Some Fringe venues just feel built for late-night madcap humor. Pleasance Bunker Two is one of them, and while Alice Cockayne might specialize more in wigs than in caps, she proves why she earned her portion of this year’s Keep It Fringe fund (designed to financially support performers to meet the rising costs of August in Edinburgh).
Right from the cartoonishly over-the-top opening bit, Cockayne has her audience right where she wants them. Wide-eyed and bewildered, watching her field phone calls for her escort service and putting the callers in their place. “Don’t worry. It’s a character. Don’t think about it,” she says to us, more than once. Just sit back and enjoy, or perhaps be bemused and intimidated at the same time by the divorcee mother Penelope who’s expecting, or Mrs. Acrylic, or the cleaning lady, or Jeannie with the broken neck. The various wigs hanging from the bunker’s ceiling are the least weird thing happening in front of you.
Just as Saturday Night Live finally decides to mount a UK edition, Cockayne and her characters have come at a perfect time to have their moment in the sun. Or in the late-night spotlight on the telly. Or for now, in a bunker under Pleasance Courtyard.
