After having heard about them last year I decided to watch The Pin do a London preview for Edinburgh. Such was the standard of the preview, I recommended it to my friends and booked a ticket to see the show a second time.
Sadly, there seems to have been some magic lost in the transition from the preview to Edinburgh. But first, a precis of the show.
The Pin contrive to make an ultimate sketch that incorporates all the best bits of their previous sketches throughout a show and along the way there are some brilliant comic bits, including a sketch playing on theatre convention of showing beds as upright and the actors holding the bedsheet vertical as if horizontal - Ben gets out of beds and drops on the floor to maintain the geometry of the situation - it's a beautiful play on theatre and brilliant. There's a multitude of other lovely sketches too, including a text exchange of mistaken identity.
In the London preview, the final playback of the supposed 'ultimate sketch' has an incoherent collection of lines but you finally realise the video forms part of a coherent conversation with the live actors commenting on the video. It's a mind-blowing moment of realisation...at least, it was.
Sadly in the Edinburgh version the sketch at the end has fewer lines incorporated from previous sketches and it becomes a bit too meta without the humour. Some great sketches from London are also lost (a memorable one being Ben asking Alex to play a director as Ben plays the actor showing the director a script, a script in which Ben is playing an Actor and Alex a producer who's meeting an actor (played by Ben) who's meeting an executive producer (played by Alex)....you get the picture. Alex is left horrifically confused and I was left in tears). Other sketches too were tweaked but, to me, slightly lost the edge and became either too contrived or had lost their rhythm.
Nevertheless this is a very well put together show with delightful meta-narrative moments but sadly it just didn't have the same vibe as the London previews. Alas...there's always next year, and here's hoping they don't go backwards.
Score: 8/10
Venue: Pleasance Dome:
Dates: 27th-31st August
Time: 19:00
Price: £11 (£10) weekend, £10 (£9) weekday
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