Olga Koch's new show Fat Tom Cruise at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, presents a seemingly meaningful agenda from the start, with screens projecting details of US legal cases and sleek stage furniture. Koch powers through the set with swaggering authority, like a woman on a mission, professing to tell a story that isn't her own.
A Story of Fraternity and Gender
The narrative traces Koch's journey from school senior avenging an unrequited crush to college student in the US, where she is drawn into fraternity culture—first at a hazing ritual and later at a wedding with a man nostalgic for his frat-boy past. Interspersed are briefings on real-world gender-equality lawsuits that alleged and proved unfair discrimination against men.
Koch performs with drive and command, a no-nonsense approach to nonsense, pirouetting across the stage to celebrate zinging put-downs. Her imperious, fast-talking style is so polished that when she forgets her lines, it's like Katharine Hepburn getting tongue-tied in Bringing Up Baby.
A Bait-and-Switch Denouement
The show's wider project is revealed at the end, as Fat Tom Cruise's fate suggests male vulnerability may not be a laughing matter. This sentiment is worth endorsing, though the denouement feels a little earnest and crudely engineered compared to earlier laughs. Nonetheless, it's another substantial set from one of the fringe's most reliable purveyors of big-payload comedy.
