Doppler was finally staged at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the wooded grounds of the National Trust For Scotland property Newhailes House. Keith Fleming reprised his role as Doppler, with Sean Hay also reprising as Dusseldorf/Gregus/Posh Parent. Chloe-Ann Tylor joined the company as Bongo/Bosse/Daughter/Brother-In Law. The production was nominated for two Critics Awards For Theatre in Scotland (CATS) Best Actor for Keith Fleming and Best Design.
The audience sat on low logs in a woodland glade with a real fire and live foley by Nik Paget-Tomlinson (based on an original score and foley by David Pollock).
a mightily complex and disturbing meditation for our time, delivered with a light-touch brilliance- and a strong sense of comedy- that never obscures the significance of the themes at hand...powerfully entertaining...it is a measure of the brilliance of Keith Fleming's performance as Doppler that he encompasses every aspect of this hugely complex character with apparent ease and immense story-telling skill...flawless production.
a sensory show, and immersive in the best sense of the word. The scent of campfire lingers and Nik Paget-Tomlinson's sound design is everywhere, merging with the forest surroundings in subtle and ingenious ways. Becky Minto's set is similarly in sync with the environment, adding to the natural stage rather than disrupting it. David A Pollock's score further underpins the atmospheric, immersive nature of the experience...originally intended to debut in 2020 and postponed sure to COVID, Doppler was well worth the wait
Keith Fleming's performance as Doppler is glorious in its energy and commitment.
Wonderfully cartoonish and darkly comic...the beauty of Harrison's clever production is that it creates a brilliant balance between the character of Doppler (as the fixed, if somewhat unhinged, centre of the story) and the other characters (such as Bosse, the consummately named posh, reactionary eccentric). While Fleming gives a performance that is a perfectly calibrated combination of plausible rationale and wide-eyed lunacy, Tylor and Hay are at liberty to play the orbiting characters as gloriously original caricatures...an original, funny and through-provoking piece of theatre.
hugely enjoyable
Grid Iron has brilliantly transposed this Norwegian tale, of a man who leaves his family to live in a tent...if there is one company well suited to adapting to the Covid pandemic it is Grid Iron. The Edinburgh sepcialist in site-responsive theatre is never seen in the same place twice. A tremendous performance.
Ben Harrison directs with nuance. He's not afraid to bring the pace to a near standstill...or to drive it forward with ferocity when required. His adaptation is clever too, punctuated by comic moments...a fascinating examination of modern masculinity and the relationship between father and sons.
