Kill The Beast: Don't Wake The Damp

★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
33330 large
115270 original
Published 13 Aug 2016

A camp, comedy-horror mash-up of 1980s video games and sci-fi schlock, Kill The Beast's third Fringe offering delivers reliably kitsch silliness with redoubtable energy and impressive production values.

With lantern-jawed Captain Charismo (Oliver Jones) and his oversexed sidekick Boobs (Natasha Hodgson) battling a space supervillain with little more than clunky dialogue and a whizz-bang theme tune, it seems the young ensemble have tediously opted for a straightforward, cheesy spoof of 1950s superhero serials.

However, Starship Raiders is merely a TV show within the show – now existing only as retro nostalgia and the past life of wizened pensioner June, who played Boobs as a young actor but is filled with bitter recrimination about it. Living in the tower block Vertigo Heights, alongside such neighbours as the show's biggest fan and the tooth fetishist who runs the resident's association, they're nonplussed to be told by shifty council worker Mr Brambles (David Cumming) to evacuate because of rising damp. Unfortunately, The Damp might be more urgent and voracious a problem than any of them imagined, leaving June and the others to fight for survival and perhaps find personal redemption.

With slick costume and set changes, Don't Wake the Damp proceeds at an impressive clip through its entirely disposable plot. Musical and dance numbers are performed with gusto and the script is intermittently amusing, with the group showcasing a tight chemistry and willingness to commit to the demands of an extremely physical production.