Broadway World
July 3, 2019
Remember "If you're gonna kill a man, better make
sure you do it properly. First rule of a murder."
Roscoe 'Blackjack' Porter, a rugged (read; drunk)
gunslinger, has just woken in a filthy saloon in Hope Springs to find he's been
stabbed. Let the high jinks begin...
Evil Martin Valance has a plan: build the biggest gun the
world has ever seen, to destroy the Native American populace and make a sack
full o' dimes in the process.
Will Roscoe foil Valance's machinations? Who is the
masked assassin on his tail? Can he fight off bandits and escape the allures of
an enigmatic Femme Fatale? Will he ever pay off his bar tab in the Mucky
Donkey?
To fulfil his brother's dying wish he will have to ride
across the rugged frontier, with only whisky, his cards, and his trusted guns,
Bess and Bella, on his hips.
More cowboy than Clint himself, this one-man show deploys
a charming array of makeshift props - think playing cards, saloon doors and
cacti - in the service of its impressive twenty-five characters (and the entire
gamut of American accents), all played by just the one man. Think about it that
has got to be pretty close to all the characters the genre possesses...
High-energy and hilariously earnest performer and writer
William Hartley charges, all guns blazing, through his joyous pastiche which
references to every Spaghetti Western out there. There's killin' baddies,
ridin' horses, seduction, drinkin' and (of course) fightin' on the roof of a
movin' train. Moreover, there are also moments of genuine pathos AND a sex
scene you are unlikely to forget in a hurry. For all its cavorting and
set-piece clichés, Gun sets out to honour the mighty Western, not to mock it.
The result is a homage to this timeless genre.
All twenty-five characters are in the safe hands of Will
Hartley, best known as a quarter of award-winning sketch group Clever Peter,
with whom he co-wrote and starred in five sell-out Edinburgh Fringe shows,
toured nationally, and created a critically acclaimed Radio 4 series, 'Strap In
- It's Clever Peter' (Pozzitive Productions) Additionally he has been on screen
in The One Griff (BBC), Tracey Ullman Breaks the News (BBC), Cardinal Burns
(Channel 4), Otherworld (BBC3) and BAFTA-nominated CBBC sketch show FIT. He has
toured Italy and England in The Picture of Dorian Gray, as the eponymous Jekyll
and Hyde for the European Arts Company, and the late Snoo Wilson's Lovesong Of
The Electric Bear.
Will is also the co-creator (alongside Adam Miller) of
Zomboat! - a new original zombie comedy-drama show. Starring Leah Brotherhead
(White Gold), Hamza Jeetooa (Doctor Who), Ryan McKen (White Dragon), and Cara
Theobold (Downton Abbey), the story follows the aftermath of a zombie onslaught
being unleased in Birmingham. In their fight for survival, sisters Kat and Jo,
together with unlikely travel companions Sunny and Amar, flee for their
lives... by canal boat. Packed into tight living quarters, friendships develop,
alliances form, arguments occur, romance blossoms and they soon realise that
there's no escaping the problems of everyday life - even in a zombie
apocalypse. Zomboat! is produced by Noho and will air on ITV2 this autumn
before being available on Hulu.
William Hartley performs 'Gun' at the Edinburgh Fringe
Festival, from 1st - 24th August (not 14th). For tickets and more information:
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gun
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