ED FRINGE 2023 REVIEW | The Ice Hole - A Cardboard Comedy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Reviewer - Jordan
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Ice Hole: A Cardboard Comedy was the most creative show at the Fringe Festival. Like most of the shows I have seen I went into this blind so as the judge the show solely on the performance, and I am incredibly glad I did.
Ice Hole surprised me from the moment it began, and if you would rather avoid any information that may spoil aspects of the show I would jump ahead and skip this paragraph and the next, now. Still here? OK. Ice Hole is another show where the show really begins before it begins. We are greated by a stage with a single large cardboard box at the centre, and a sign denoting that the show would start in 15 minutes. To the left and right of the stage are a myriad of cardboard boxes in various shapes and sizes which, after a moment of realization, also function as the stage wings. 5 minutes after arriving, a man in nothing but a pair of very tight swimming shorts and swimming cap appears and replaces the “5” with a “0”, 10 mminutes to go.
This repeats until the show begins, at which point the large box is removed to reveal our… I hesitate to say protagonist, but certainly the focus of our show, who has been waiting patiently much like ourselves. We are introduced in… Well, it isn’t English, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t any language at all in fact, it’s gibberish. But through the body language, delivery and intensity, we nonetheless seem to be able to follow along. Although this is actually in no small part due to the efforts of our swimming trunk’d friend, who delievers the majority of the story…
Over here! OK, back with us? Excellent, the story of Ice Hole is told through the incredibly clever use of cardboard, whether this is as scenery, weather, sounds, messages, or everything. It is all delivered and embodied by nothing more than cardboard and every single time I was surprised by the complexity, timing and practice that must have gone into making this work. There is no dialogue in this show, at least none in an actual language (except for a handful of occasions where the two performers have a little… disagreement), but we are still somehow able to understand exactly what is being said.
This was definitely one of my highlights of the Fringe and I would love to see more from this group.
At Pleasance Courtyard until 28 August.
