The James Kettle Moment #14: Edinburgh Fringe Review: Jack Lamp: The Gloaming

James Kettle
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s not often at the Edinburgh Fringe that you see a show which is fresher and more exciting than any you have ever seen before, and any you will ever see again. It probably happens no more than once or twice a year. Jack Lamp’s The Gloaming is one such show.

It’s a show that defies easy categorization — too primitive to be listed as “Art”, not dramatic enough to be listed as “Theatre”, not funny enough to be listed as “Comedy”. As a result, it is listed under “Comedy”.

Lamp has chosen to eschew the established (dare one say “corporate”?) venues on the Fringe, instead opting to stage The Gloaming in a “devised space”, inside a large bottlebank in Tollcross. As I took my place amid a group of eleven excited audience members, shortly before the advertised start time of 10:35 am, I could not have imagined quite what an experience I had in store for myself.

The first thing you see in The Gloaming is a large black-painted stage flat with a small hole cut in the middle. Through this hole sticks an adult male penis. This is also the last thing you see in The Gloaming. And all of the things you see inbetween.

But amid this deliberate minimalism is expressed the whole gamut of contemporary human comedy. Early on in proceedings, the penis twitches gently from side to side, a stunning satirical commentary on the art of crowd work. Towards the middle of the performance, the audience apprehends the unexpected arrival of a semi, which then subsides — a carefully crafted example of the building up and releasing of tension upon which so many comedy routines rely. And in the devastating last ten minutes, a teardrop forms at the tip of a penis — in what has been interpreted as a moment of mourning for the performer’s late father.

Speaking with Lamp after the performance backstage (behind the bottlebank), he explained to me that his penis is Gaulier-trained, although he himself is not. This has created some creative differences in the act, with the penis more interested in using the techniques of clowning to break through the physical barriers between performer and audience, while Lamp himself is keener on topical political impressions (he does a great William Hague). There is even the possibility that Lamp and his penis may go in different directions after the Fringe is over, especially now the fleshy sex organ has made the finals of the Amused Moose Hot Starlets competition.

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James Kettle

writing scripts for things

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