Review: EDINBURGH 2024: GARRY STARR: CLASSIC PENGUINS, Pleasance Courtyard

“Tonight I will perform every single book ever written by a penguin”

Directed by Cal McCrystal and Georgia Murphy, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins takes audiences on an adventure through as many Penguin Classics books as possible with our host, Garry Starr (Damien Warren-Smith). There’s just one thing that’s a bit unusual - Starr is in the nude. Well, not exactly. He is wearing a tailcoat, top hat, ruffle collar and flippers, but that’s it. After a dramatic introduction of saying “Literature . . . Books . . . Words . . .” while slowly walking around the stage, it is time for the show to begin.

We begin with Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, with Starr farting into a fern and making it move. An audience member is brought onstage and is taped down to become the titular Gulliver in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. There are many scenes that involve audience participation, including a hilarious interpretation of The Grapes of Wrath in which Starr pits two members of the audience against one another, throwing grapes across the stage in an attempt to hit one another.

There is also a brilliant sequence that rapidly segues from H.G. Wells’s The Invisible Man to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women to Virginia Woolf’s The Waves to Robert Drewe’s The Bodysurfers with hilarious results.

A few scenes give you a false sense of knowing what is next before hitting you with a book out of left field, including The Jungle Book and Great Expectations (I won’t go into spoilers as it is really quite fun to see the twists!). At one point, Starr encourages audience members to “Pass the Hat Around” for emperor penguins but then quickly gives the money out to audience members are the title of The Communist Manifesto is revealed on the projector. 

Even with all of the chaos and nudity, whenever there are audience members involved, Starr always emphasises the importance of consent, only including audience members who want to be a part of the show. This is true even when Starr is crowd-surfing, letting people know that they can duck in a “brace” position and will not be required to be involved. The majority of the audience does get involved, but it is great to know that the option to not participate is welcomed. To quote Starr, “So consensual and so safe!” 

Starr also keeps the audience on edge in fear for his physical health, chugging an entire bottle of fruit juice (meant to represent a baby) as Dracula and then almost immediately running around an inflatable globe 80 times (you can guess which book this is inspired by), retching several times and having the audience yell out in concern. But, somehow, the vomit never comes, which was a great relief to this particular audience member!

Ultimately, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is one of the most unique shows at the Fringe, and certainly one of the few that mixes classic literature and nudity in such a funny way. You can go in with Great Expectations and they will still be met, leaving you wishing you had The Time Machine to go back and see this fantastic work. 

Garry Starr: Classic Penguins ran until 26 August at Pleasance Courtyard - Forth.

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