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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lyn Gardner

El Dorado

Welcome to the New World, where, fantastical creatures take you on a journey into the mad dreams of both the Spanish Conquistadors and our own greedy fantasies. This show, a controlled and imaginative piece of Buffoon theatre inspired by the work of Jacques Le Coq, is as close as you can get to winning the lottery on the Edinburgh fringe. Although not everyone will warm to its stylistic quirks, it is impossible not to be drawn into this dream world where tales of conquerors are told by outcasts and mad exploits are narrated by the insane. It is both absurdly heroic and deflating.

There is no through narrative, merely a series of scenes of torture, murder and death recreated with the greatest good humour, as the Conquistadors chase gold in the name of God and kill for something that doesn't even exist. At the end God proves himself to be as slippery as a wet fish and the only loot there is comes from the audience.

This is a very clever show, a rich, bejewelled thing that exposes the folly of human greed and our wasted dreams.

Till August 28. Box office: 0131-556 6550.

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