I’ve seen plenty of performers sweat on the Edinburgh fringe, but until now I’d not seen one disrobe and wring a pint of sweat from his T-shirt. Suffice to say, Adam Drake puts in a shift in his new hour, a kinetic solo sketch show that doubles up as a (wo)manhunt and is backed by a seven-piece band.
If Hydroberserker, co-created with his off-stage Goose partner, Ben Rowse, has a fault, it’s that it’s too hyperactive. Some micro-sketches are come and gone before you register the joke, which may or may not be convenient. Drake is like a piece of stretched elastic throughout, all strained sinews and nervous tension as he tries to fathom the mystery of his missing sweetheart, Belle. The phone number she left him doesn’t work. Maybe it’s a code? Liam Neeson and novelist Dan Brown are co-opted to help. Fellow comic Kath Hughes plays Belle in several staged re-enactments.
It’s chaotic, and it doesn’t help that Drake appears to be having technical difficulties. And he refers too often to his supposedly limited commercial appeal. No need to self-deprecate: there’s some brilliant stuff here. Among the quickfire sketches that interrupt Drake’s story, there’s a neat gag about dining in the dark and a droll routine at the expense of his feminist credentials. Other sketches falter badly, until a corkscrew’s worth of twists in the tail cast their seeming failure in a new light. It’s a killer finale to a niftily constructed, frenetical hour.
• At Assembly George Square, Edinburgh, until 28 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
