Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Bad, good and ugly

Uber Hate Gang<br /> Underbelly Little Black Bastard; Stripped<br /> Gilded Balloon The Tailor of Inverness<br /> Udderbelly Pasture Ginger and Black<br /> Pleasance

issue 28 August 2010

Uber Hate Gang
Underbelly

Little Black Bastard; Stripped
Gilded Balloon

The Tailor of Inverness
Udderbelly Pasture

Ginger and Black
Pleasance

And it’s getting bigger. Amazing as it sounds, the Edinburgh Festival keeps expanding like a slum landlord. Every year half a dozen cobwebbed halls and disused assembly rooms are forced open, spruced up and pressed into service for the ragamuffin hordes of wannabe superstars. It’s getting harder to find your way round, too. Luck was against me when I set off for Uber Hate Gang, an acclaimed masterwork from ‘Britain’s hottest young theatre company’ at the Underbelly. I found it all too easily. The dank, cold, unlit venue smelled of rotting knitwear and, if I’d sat there in the dark twiddling my thumbs and breathing TB fumes for an hour, I’d have had more fun than watching this pretentious muddle. The Gang want to unleash a sophisticated howl of protest against some unnamed fascist power but they succeed only in delivering a ceaseless barrage of infantile nastiness.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in