By Joyce McMillan, Susan Mansfield

Published 10th Aug 2023, 12:18 BST

JM Coetzee’s Life & Times Of Michael K, Assembly Hall (Venue 35) *****

Until 27 August

England & Son, Roundabout @ Summerhall (Venue 26) ****

Until 27 August

Among all the teeming possibilities of the 21st century Fringe, there is still the occasional show that somehow feels like the year’s main event, the one every Fringe-goer should not miss. The Baxter Theatre of Cape Town’s new version of JM Coetzee’s mighty 1983 novel Life & Times Of Michael K is one of those shows; a great tale of oppression and the struggle to overcome it, set in a fictional South Africa during the dying years of apartheid.

In two gripping, heart-rending and perfectly-crafted hours, Lara Foot’s exquisite production of her own stage adaptation leads us through Coetzee’s quietly momentous tale of a humble Cape Town man, lonely and often shunned since birth because of a hare lip, who sets off with his ailing old mother on an improbable journey to her childhood home in the Cape province uplands. Michael finds the place only after his mother’s death; but during the journey he discovers in himself a sense of dignity and resistance that will no longer tolerate either the oppression on which his country is built, nor the civil war which now only adds to its terrible suffering.

Michael’s story is told with supreme skill by a magnificent company of nine actors, each playing multiple roles. Most crucially, though, the key roles of Michael and his mother are played by two magnificent and eloquent almost-life-size puppets, by Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones, whose very fragility, and dependence on the presence of other performer-puppeteers for their continuing life, seems to act as the most poignant metaphor for human life itself. Every detail of this perfectly made show is worth treasuring; and every artist and maker in the Baxter company should take infinite pride both in its breathtaking artistic achievement, and in its profound and unshakeable humanity, embodied both in the superb work of the human actors, and in the magic of the art that created their beautiful puppet companions.

Craig Leo and Carlo Daniels in Life & Times of Michael K. Picture: Fiona McPherson

This year’s solo show by much-loved Fringe favourite Mark Thomas is also a passionate plea for humanity; but here, the central character is not only a victim, but also – in a classic white working-class dilemma – the son of a man who was himself involved in the worst kinds of oppression, both domestic and colonial. England & Son marks a departure from Mark Thomas’s usual role as writer-performer, in that this monologue has been written for him by Ed Edwards, a playwright with lived experience of Britain’s prison system, using material from both Thomas’s early life and his own.

The result is a heartbreakingly powerful, sharp and tragic monologue for a man full of wise-guy working-class energy, fond of his bullying old dad and – like his dad – not averse to a bit of crime, whose denial about his father’s real nature gradually drives him into a descending spiral of pain, addiction, and violence. In the end, his broken body seems almost as small and crushed as the Baxter Theatre’s Michael K puppet after the puppeteers finally lay it down. In a show that reminds us that even when Mark Thomas is not his own principal writer, he remains one of the great performer-storytellers of our time. Joyce McMillan

The Wonderful Everyday, theSpace @ Niddry Street (Venue 9) ***

Until 12 August

This year’s production from Student Theatre at Glasgow (STAG), written by Ellie Harrington, has a winning premise: a certain Swedish furniture giant has moved into reality TV. Couples are recruited to live in the store for a year, and the ones who sell the most sofas win a house. After all, at today’s property prices, how else could they afford one?

Queer couple Sam and Jay (Emma Gribbon and Laura Milton) have managed three months of eating meatballs and watching TV, but it’s starting to put a strain on their relationship, and it’s possible that the company has not been entirely straight with them.

It takes a little while to work out what’s going on in the play, which is directed by Harrington and Diana Kukharenko, and a tighter structure would bring a greater sense of pace and tension. But it starts to explore some interesting ideas about the difference between real and performed identities and how easy it is to lose track of the difference, and the central idea is, quite frankly, all too believable. Susan Mansfield

Bill’s 44th, Underbelly Cowgate (Venue 61) ***

Until 27 August

The stage is set for a birthday party and the eponymous Bill – a puppet whose hair and eyebrows in part make up for his lack of facial features – needs only to make the punch, set out the crudities and wait for the guests. But when the only caller is trying to deliver a pizza for a neighbour, Bill’s imagination takes over and he creates some company for himself.

What starts out as a reflection on loneliness and isolation develops, over the course of an hour, into something stranger, funnier and more interesting with dancing carrots, malevolent balloons and an exploding television.

New York-based puppeteers Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck, who created the show, are highly skilled not only with Bill but with a range of other puppets and objects. Bill’s limited facial expressions means they get a lot of mileage out of his hands (they each operate one hand each), and Eamon Fogarty’s soundtrack of light jazz helps to colour the mood.

We don’t know why Bill is alone, and this show is not set up to deliver on psychological realism, although there is a poignant sequence which traces his birthdays through his life. On the whole, Bill’s 44th plays for laughs rather than attempting a broad emotional range. Susan Mansfield

Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: JM Coetzee’s Life & Times Of Michael K | England & Son | The Wonderful Everyday | Bill’s 44th