Music                                                                 The Velvet Lounge                                            19th February

With a festival as large as Fringe World, there’s inevitably going to be a handful of duds. New work that needs more rehearsal, performers who just throw something together to get an artists pass, or worse, the Olive and Concetta model. A show that isn’t really a show – just an idea a couple of friends had over a bottle of cava one Sunday afternoon.

An Evening With Olive and Concetta centres around the duo of women, Olive playing the accordion and Concetta singing, and a collection of classic Italian folk songs. The musicianship is undeniable, but this didn’t really feel like a show. It felt like a bunch of ideas, none of which were ever fully realised. For instance, Concetta makes reference to forthcoming audience participation that never actually occurs.

I think Olive was Concetta’s straight man, but the characters were so inconsistent that I was never really sure. The show began with the offering of complimentary bread and wine (undeniable highlight) to establish a kind of Catholic Church theme, but this was never followed through. At one point, we just watched a close-up video of the inside of an accordion for several minutes.

Fringe World needs these performers, but I think I’d rather just have the cava.

An Evening with Olive an Concetta runs until Sunday the 22nd of February. You can find tickets via the Fringe World guide here.