Edinburgh 2002

Fringe

The Canterbury Tales: tales from the Decameron
The Smirnoff Underbelly

Dolan Cummings

Heard the one about the nuns and the seminarians under the bridge? Here are seven, a selection of stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron performed by Cambridge University ADC in the suitably dingy surroundings of the Smirnoff Underbelly.

There is not much of the original language on offer, but the production is true to the notorious vulgarity of both works in its bawdy physicality. The aforementioned nuns and seminarians act out the seven stories energetically and noisily, throwing themselves about the stage, sometimes literally, in the service of these medieval favourites.

Inevitably, some stories are done better than others. The opening Merchant’s Tale works especially well. The merchant’s debauchery is established graphically at the beginning, while the wily character of his apparently innocent wife is achieved with more subtle means. Indeed the acting throughout is very effective.

The Wife of Bath does not work so well, perhaps because it is the least physical of the seven: two wives brandishing bananas torment the audience in a bawdy vernacular. The most entertaining story is the Decameron number about the loveable idiot Andreuccio going to Naples. This is an all-action medieval romp it is impossible not to like - Ed Lake in the lead role is a master of bathos.

Some of the stories are much darker, but these too are rendered with humour and imagination. The overall effect is quite dizzying, and certainly a lot is lost in the onslaught, but there is enough hyperactive wit here to keep a barrel-load of nuns and seminarians happy for an hour and three quarters.

Until August 25: 12.00 (1hr 45mins)