Words: Elodie Marriot
Image: Jonny Ruff
4 stars
“You’re welcome gays!”
Linus Karp and Joseph Martin have returned to the fringe with new wigs and a show dedicated to another iconic blonde: Gwyneth Paltrow. In a he-said-she-said skiing accident, an optometrist from Utah fights the Goop-founder in a farcical court case.
From comparisons to King Kong, to a lawyer decerning just how friendly Gwyneth is with Taylor Swift, Awkward Productions had a lot of absurd material to play with, and boy do they. The show includes dramatic lip-sync battles set to original songs by Leland (composer of Drag Race) and features thrilling choreography that combines tango with fencing.
In areas, the show is deliberately scrappy. The Deer of Deer Valley is taped to a clothes rack and exposed as cardboard when wheeled around. As we file into the room, we listen to classic pop songs that are slightly altered, certain words replaced by ‘ski’. For example, Dua Lipa’s contribution to the Barbie movie went: “Watch me dance skiiiii.”
Unsurprisingly, audience participation is taken to the next level, employing members of the crowd to fill in key roles. We were also tasked with deciding the guilty party, with two alternate endings depending on the verdict.
Both Karp and Martin’s performances are uncanny in their campy representations of the
unlikely duo. Gwyneth Goes Skiing is truly a worthy successor to the brilliant Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story. It’s Gwamazing.
Gwyneth Goes Skiing
Pleasance Courtyard, Forth
15:30
Aug 6-11, 13-18, 20-26