THE LAD LIT PROLJECT. To 28 August.

Edinbuirgh

THE LAD LIT PROJECT
by Alexander Kelly

Smirnoff Underbelly (Big Belly) To 28 August 2005
5.05pm-6.15pm No interval

TICKETS: 0870 745 3083 (9am-11pm)
www.smirnoffunderbelly.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 August

Is it a lecture? Is it a play? No, it's a super-show.Third Angel have been touring this show (devised by its performer with James Bush and James Stenhouse) some time and it fits well into the Edinburgh Fringe. Alexander Kelly opens with quite a lot of facts about himself - weight, height, colouring and more. Luckily he's not off on an ego-trip. Nor is he making an Everyman statement, despite some generalisations. Such that human genetic make-up has a 45% overlap with that of a cabbage (it's only 30% for a lettuce, according to Caryl Churchill, possibly making that the 'purer' one for vegetarians).

What Kelly claims to have done is collect male experiences from round the country (certainly the focus is English) which focus on aspects of being male. Such as the moment a boy realises his father can be in the wrong, or a wartime experience of hiding from Nazis after a parachute drop - something involving giggling, in the unlikely way of things.

Circles of friendship, relationships with women and, naturally, the British pub, feature. As one of his few props Kelly has a pint of ale, and an unsympathetic view of the devising process might be that the whole thing's an excuse to get one in on the production budget.

But it's not. While the show looks like a lecture - a row of chairs, projector, table - it's strongly theatrical (Kelly's voice speeds towards enthusiasm as he captures the excitability of alcohol-eased pub talk).

And it has a lot to say about male experience in a way that neither celebrates nor condemns. Its comments arise from interesting experiences which are not themselves judged.

A parallel chic lit account might well be either comic or more fully dramatic. But as male identity hasn't gone through the assertiveness training feminism's brought to women, Lad Lit has its more investigative angle just right. This show has an intelligent individuality, following a track of its own devising rather than one fashionably beaten by others, that makes it a treat to come across in the Fringe forest.

Performer: Alexander Kelly

Directors: Alexander Kelly, Rachael Walton
Lighting: James Harrison

2005-08-16 18:02:42