Ross Sutherland, Underbelly, Edinburgh
Friday 27 August 2010
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Ross Sutherland's debut show melds stand-up, satire and sinuous verse, making the 29-year-old spoken-word artist one of the most exciting new voices to emerge on the Fringe this year. The Three Stigmata of Pacman is loosely the tale of his quarter-life crisis, a journey from music journalist in Manchester to destitute wannabe poet living with his parents in Essex.
Along the way, there's a Day Today-style critique of the media (complete with fake sensationalist headlines, "Policemen to be replaced by Twitter in 2011!"), slippery word play and coming-of-age revelation. Most impressive is the deft way that Sutherland weaves his poetry amongst the stand-up and storytelling. There's an off-licence anecdote told in multiple styles, a cleverly retooled Little Red Riding Hood set to a gorgeous animated film and an emotional homecoming epic: "When you get high enough/ Any city looks pretty". Sutherland is compelling, veering between earnest and flippant, erudite and heartfelt. A real star in the making.
To 29 August (0844 545 8252)
- 1 Fanny Brice: A Funny Girl revival ignores the real scandals in the Broadway legend's life
- 2 Men in Black 3D (PG)
- 3 Independent podcast: Vasily Petrenko - Shostakovich
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- 5 First Night: Paperboy, Cannes Film Festival
- 6 10 best festival essentials
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- 8 Alec Baldwin launches foul-mouthed tirade at producer Harvey Weinstein
- 9 Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team
- 10 Jacob Zuma's lawyer weeps in court case against artist
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- 9 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
- 10 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
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