John Hegley’s latest book Beyond Our Kennel formed the basis of his Fringe show where he read selected prose from the book, items inspired by it and other pieces from his extensive back catalogue.
Apart from several pieces in which John adopted characters, he performed mostly seated at a small table covered in a large pile of pages and books from which he recited the texts. As the show neared its conclusion, he became much more animated and used more of the stage, showing that John can provide colour and movement when the need takes him. For the most part, his readings were delivered in his usual straight-faced style that was amusing in itself.
John made use of the audience for a number of his songs of which they willingly obliged. Although they tried their best, light-hearted scolding came from John when his instructions weren’t followed to the letter. We sang the chorus to his version of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, created hand puppet dogs to interact with and created on echo effect for a song.
Just like John’s previous shows, his Mandolin accompanied songs and poems continually referred to his hometown of Luton and described scenes of childhood experiences. All were relayed with silliness, childlike whimsy and a good dash of adult cynicism. Not being laugh a minute material, they were quite gentle in tone and often ended in surprising ways. The shorter pieces that seemed to contain little or no humour were instead quite funny in their abruptness. This was definitely material that required careful listening so as to catch every subtleness and twist.
An interesting aspect to the show was his Q&A session where the audience could pose questions. This was the section where John dropped his guard and occasionally let slip a smile to reassure us that he was enjoying himself. One punter prompted for his ‘Edinburgh Tattoo’ spiel that he happily obliged without missing a beat.
Beyond Our Kennel was classic Hegley with all the elements fans have come to expect. It was a perfect lunchtime show for all the family.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.