Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 – REVIEW – The Best of Pip Utton****

Pip Utton
Pleasance Beneath
1225 hrs

PIP Utton fans have loved his one man shows where he has played Frances Bacon, Margaret Thatcher, Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill. They are all different in so many ways. In one way it is nuance and in other ways, tone.

At this year’s festival, Pip Utton is putting on all four performances on different days

On this occasion, he was playing Maggie Thatcher. In the performance, we see the actor playing Maggie and the cryptic letter he receives and then we are treated to a Tour De Force as his Maggie opens up questions to the audience. Be under no doubt, Pip knows his stuff and whether it is questions on Trump and May or Dutch coal, he/she always answers and answers in so many different ways. As one would have expected of Maggie.

The show concludes as the actor reflects on his early life in a colliery town and why “Maggie” drove a wedge. It was a poignant end to a very powerful piece.

Pip Utton is a beautiful actor, in such command of both word and expression. He is almost an actor born of previous age and we should cherish and celebrate that.

We look forward to more characterisations in the future.