MAJOR TOM

Summerhall

2-25 Aug

16.45

£10-£12

Highly recommended, I went along to this show in need of some genuine fun.  Easily enjoyable and quietly clever it was positively fun. Nominated for Total Theatre Award – its is definitely ‘innovative, experimental and playing with form’ to take anthropology to the comedy stage.  The show is performed by Victoria Melody (Farnham Maltings/ Harlow Playhouse/ Escalator East to Edinburgh) and her beloved Basset Hound, Major Tom.  It tells the story of Major Tom’s turn at becoming a show dog, and Victoria’s emphatic responsibility as his owner to equally subject herself to such scrutiny and try to become a beauty queen.  And so we enter the world of dog shows and beauty pageants.  The journey she takes us on is one of irony and wry observations.  The personal assaults each of them genuinely experience at the hands of professionals in these worlds allows you to gladly share in the mockery of the industries given how obviously endearing both of these two participants are.

As a piece of theatre the show is engrossing, you eagerly await the next tale.  Its the delivery that makes this show. Victoria Melody makes this show from concept to contest to conquest.  The normality of her sunny disposition is in stark contrast to her subtle satirical sentiments.  Now she does primarily allow you to make your own anthropological observations (or rather judgements) however there are times when you are definitely catching up with her, with the slow realisation that all aspects of the story are real, they really happened… in not giving anything away, staying true to the real story Victoria Melody’s disbelief is beautifully portrayed.  Her co-star is the perfect accompaniment, Major Tom’s brilliance is that he tells his own story without any effort whatsoever!  Delightfully dead-pan.