The Frome Drama Club's Festival offering is a late-night one-acter at The Cornerhouse: David Tristram's "Brenton v Brenton". It's great fun - nothing more, nothing less. Plundering American soaps, cartoons, "Kramer v Kramer" and even "The Importance of Being Earnest", it's an OTT parody of the American advertising business of the 1980s: Mad Men, twenty years on, and with condom jokes. Subtle, it ain't, but the production captures the tone perfectly. The cracking pace lapses only once in a curious sequence where, ironically we fast forward several months. Otherwise the gags come thick and fast (not always hilarious, but consistently smile-worthy) and on Monday night the company battled personfully against the noise of the band that was playing on the ground floor. And it was to their credit that we believed this was clearly all part of the show, and The Dempseys had simply been hired to provide some Chicago club-next-door atmosphere. Recommended.Less successful was the Fashion Show. This must be one of the most inclusive events of the Festival in terms of the breadth of the audience, so it was a shame that those who attended this (and perhaps nothing else?) experienced something that was so uneven. The models were great - all amateurs, all ages, all shapes and sizes and all very happy in their (sometimes well displayed) skin. The design work of Frome College was most imaginative, particularly the comic strip skirts. And the opening dance number (from 'Chicago') was great - sexy and skilfully done. But technically the evening was rather a mess and the presenters did not appear to be entirely in control of proceedings - though to be fair, one of them (whose name I did not catch) was a last minute stand-in. It all looked dreadfully under-rehearsed. A shame.
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