ED FRINGE 2023 REVIEW | Batsu!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Reviewer - Jordan
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
Batsu, if I had to sum it up, is beautiful, hilarious, chaos. As soon as you step into the room you are greeted by such energy, especially considering this show doesn’t begin until 22:45, that you nonetheless feel newly invigorated and ready to face anything.
Those of you who opt to purchase the Batsu headband will also be visited by the sake ninjas who were more than happy to ensure everyone was enjoying themselves, comfortable and most of all, drinking. Certainly, one way to get the crowd involved and keen to take part.
The show itself is reminiscent, and of course inspired by, the old Japanese punishment style game shows. For those of a certain age, think Takeshi’s Castle, but in a much more intimate environment. We are introduced to the extended cast, our host, the 4 comedians who will be facing the challenges of the day, Noriko-san who will be dealing out the lion's share of the punishments (or Bastu) and the rest of the cast who come in and out with various challenges and punishments throughout the show.
The crux of the show is the challenge and punishment games, our cast of improv comedians (who were all exceptionally talented and funny individuals alone, and more-so together) are introduced to a challenge, without spoiling too much, think Whose Line is it Anyway styled comedy games (rhyming games, delivering one liner jokes etc), with some drinking and physical games thrown in to boot. The loser of each game is then subjected to their Batsu, Japanese for “punishment”, these change from game to game, and I’m given to understand some of the more elaborate punishments in fact change from show to show as well. But to give you an idea of the types of things you might see, there were paintball guns (real I might add, the cast displayed the bruises to attest to this), being slapped by exceptionally large rubber bands and eating sushi from a grown man's sweaty body, to name a few.
This show has definitely been one of my favourites of the Fringe so far and with a 2 hour run time you are certainly getting your money's worth. Absolutely hysterical, a joy from the first minute, you have to come see this if you can. I just hope I have the opportunity to see them again.
