‘Next!’ Death by Audition

Perhaps one-person thespian disappointment is a running theme at Edinburgh this year. On the Free Fringe, Philip Talbot is extolling the virtues of being a 62% Actor, while Kiki Kendrick highlights her own particular collection of audition nightmares three floors up at Assembly Hall, itself reached by a long climb up the hill from Princes Street. You want to feel that the climb is worth it and, fortunately, she doesn’t disappoint.

Dismissed by a drama tutor as only being castable as the tart with a heart, or the rough-edged good-time gal, Kendrick sets out to prove him wrong – and has a tough time of it. Her inability to land TV jobs in Casualty or The Bill, or with Hull Truck Theatre Company, amongst many other potential employers, provides some entertaining jokes at her own expense and a special grimace of recognition from fellow performers.

Confronting the director of a play in a loo with his trousers round his ankles immediately prior to an audition is a delightful example of how fate can confound you in the most bizarre ways. As if landing a job isn’t hard enough as it is.

The show is necessarily a sequence of episodes, and episodic it feels; this is not helped by Kendrick’s tendency to let the pace and energy flag. Perhaps this is the hazard of small venues – performers can be too cautious of overdoing it when the audience is only two feet away. That said, if theatrical schadenfreude is your thing, this is a show to relish.

– Giles Cole