Morgan Berry: Watership Down

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Few Fringe shows manage to capture the hearts and minds of the audience so completely. Morgan Berry does not only this, but captures the insanity as well.

Character actor Joe Rowntree adopts his Pet Bereavement Counsellor (yes you read that right) persona from the start, greeting the audience as they file into what turns out to be one of the most bonkers and bizarre shows of the Fringe.

With the ringing of a small bell the counselling session begins and normality doesn’t return for a full hour. It is replaced with nonstop infectious laughter that ripples endlessly round the room. Some of the laughter comes from his maniacal yet smart lines. Some from the faces of the on stage volunteers who are receiving counselling. Some is from the boundless supply of strange props he finds in his many pockets and yet more from the hilariously timed tambourine that he rattles seemingly at random – yes he gets laughs from a tambourine. Sure, it's light and silly, and doesn't really mean much. But the key thing is the laughter doesn’t end. There are literally no gaps in the comedy.

Berry’s talent is in wrong footing the audience with insane diversions and mental chicanery but always steering the show back to its well-structured narrative with hilarious unexpected pay offs. No one in the room is quite sure what is going on, but no one is in any doubt that it is funny.