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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Fisher

Trumpets and Raspberries

Dario Fo believes productions of his plays should move with the times. It is mo important that an audience today should understand the political point of Trumpets and Raspberries than that they should know the story behind it. We might not get our heads around the kidnapping of Italian politician Aldo Moro in 1978, but we can laugh, as we do here, at the idea of Sir Menzies Campbell suffering a similar fate while David Cameron sits in Downing Street.

Such details in Tony Cownie's revival help keep the comedy fresh. References to the building of Edinburgh's tram line and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes have a similar effect. But despite this - and despite the merit in Fo's argument that it is big business leaders who yield the real power - his story depends on a kind of left/right factional politics that does not ring true in today's Britain.

Terrorism is high on our agenda, of course, but it is not the Red Brigade whom today's car company bosses fear. Agreeing with Fo is one thing; thinking his play is of burning political relevance is another. In the clunkier moments of his farce, this lack of purpose is most exposed. That is a shame, because the central performances by Jimmy Chisholm, doubling as the Fiat boss and a lookalike activist, and Kathryn Howden as his wife are full of purpose and brilliant in comic timing. At its best, the production is pure bliss. But when the laughter stops, it is hard to keep caring.

· Until May 10. Box office: 0131-248 4848.

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