Review: REBEL

2016 was a tough year for celebrity deaths. Top of that list, for many, was the Thin White Duke himself, David Bowie. A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Bowie was a falling star whose brightness seared permanently on the public consciousness. The creative community has been in mourning since, and it’s perhaps inevitable that this grieving process is now manifesting in live performance. Just this Fringe there are four Bowie-inspired shows. One of the more unique offerings is Gluttony’s own circus-cum-music extravaganza REBEL

It’s important to note that despite the show’s primary category being Circus, the focus here is very much on the music. It’s essentially a live Bowie tribute band accompanied by acrobatics, and taken on that basis they have nailed the brief. The band is tight, our glam and cocksure host Stewart Reeve’s vocal is a convincing impression, and the circus routines are a polished, day-glo party.

And, mostly, the marriage to circus not only works but is sometimes beautifully poignant. There’s a cosmic silks stunt to ‘Space Oddity’, and a frankly jaw-dropping Chinese pole number to ‘Lazarus’, where the pole isn’t fixed to the floor (making it behave more like a trapeze). But several songs have no accompaniment, while one (‘Cat People’) puts one cast member simply buzz-sawing a metal groin-plate to make sparks. Throw in some deep dives into more niche Bowie content to disrupt the pacing, and REBEL starts alienating the more casual fans in the audience.

This may be a visual feast – the costumes are on point for the glam rock pioneer – and a decent Bowie covers gig, but the energy stutters too much for a show with such incendiary source material.