EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SUPER, Pleasance Courtyard

If you've ever had the privilege of visiting Los Angeles, one of the most curious spectacles of the City of Angels is Hollywood Boulevard, home to the TCL Chinese Theatre, the Walk of Fame and a strange variety of characters such as Batman, Michael Jordan and Beetlejuice, to name a few.

They stand atop the names of legends forever ingrained into the streets of Los Angeles, a representation of the clear boundary between the legends that built this town and those who wish to achieve even a glimmer of such fame. If you've ever been lucky (depending how you look at it) enough to have an exchange with these characters, an Edinburgh Fringe show depicting the very lives of these wannabe Hollywood stars sounds like a fascinating dive into the world of Hollywood's street actors.

The show is structured almost like a mockumentary (think Spinal Tap or The Office) with the two leads (Max Dowler as Batman and Charlie Vero-Martin as Catwoman) intermittently performing ten minute talking head-style interviews on stage, telling their story of what happened between Batman and Robin.

Whilst the structure is funny in scope, it is clear that it does not work on stage. Whereas such an idea on film would allow for quick, comedic, back and forth cuts to further emphasise the hilarity of the situation, on stage it creates a stop and start feeling to the play. Just as it gets going and pulls you in, there is a slight break and then we are back at square one. 

However, the key issue comes in the form of the characters themselves. Once again, whereas a story following Batman and Catwoman impersonators sounds like it could be funny, it is a fine line to walk between delusional and genuine, sincere and full of it. There is an attempt to add some depth to these characters and at points there are some genuinely great moments which allow you to understand why these people do what they do.

Ultimately, the performances are not great enough to hold up the uneven quality of the script. Dowler is certainly the better of the two on stage, bringing a Bruce Campbell energy to his performance which allows for some level of both delusion and likeability, though never enough to really make the writing work.

Super may disappoint in its current form at this year's Fringe but it always feels as though there is something in there, a good idea which could be great. That may very well be the curse of the Hollywood Boulevard character actors however; portraying a lesser version of something beloved, all the while believing that they were destined for something greater. 

Super runs at Pleasance Courtyard until August 28.

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