Noose Women

Aug 17 2017 | By More

★★★☆☆  Comically sinister

theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39): Sun 6 – Sat 26 August 2017
Review by Sarah Moyes

How far would you go for your 15 minutes of fame? That’s the question asked by Noose Women as the world of celebrity comes under the microscope in this new comedy.

Making its debut at this year’s Fringe, Noose Women comes from Bear Faced Moon, a new local theatre comedy made up of graduates from Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University.

Beth Davidson, Alice Pelan and Romy Goodman. Pic Bear Faced Moon

Inspired by the modern world’s obsession with celebrities and reality television, Noose Women shows the desperate attempts that TV producers will go to in order to make the next big thing in television with little regard to those taking part. After all, the premise of the TV show in question is to sacrifice the winner of a new dating show live on air.

Beth Davidson as Pippa and Romy Goodman as Victoria are funny and fiery as associate producers at Flash Productions fighting to impress their boss and save their jobs at the same time. Alice Pelan who plays Cathy is fantastic as their shy and loveable intern who ends up going undercover in the dating show, so she can win and her death can be faked since no one will actually be able to die live on air.

off switch

Jamie Adams plays arrogant Chuck North, the American cult figure who is brain behind the sinister idea. He plays the self-obsessed figure well, but the character does begin to grate on you after a while. In the same way that Russell Brand doesn’t seem to have an off switch, you almost wish there were a few moments where you could see another side to Chuck’s character rather than just the loud egotistical one.



The show very much revolves around the offices of the television company discussing the format of the programme. And while it works well at poking fun at our fascination with reality television, there are a few ideas that seem brushed over too quickly. Aside from their audition tapes, we see nothing of the other women taking part in the show. And while the whole play is building up to this live scarification, not enough time is set aside to actually explore how the concept is carried out at the end of the show.

A refreshing and thought-provoking idea for a show, one that makes you contemplate what kind of show could be appearing on your TV next.

Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes (no interval)
theSpace on the Mile, 80 High Street, EH1 1TH (Venue 39)
Sunday 6 – Saturday 26 August 2017
Daily at 3.45pm (even days only)
Book tickets on the EdFringe website: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/noose-women

Company Facebook: @bearfacedmoontheatrecompany
Twitter: @bearfacedmoon

ENDS

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