Edinburgh Fringe 2024 reviews: The Mosinee Project / Gwyneth Goes Skiing

The Mosinee Project, Underbelly Cowgate ★★★★

In May 1950, a small US town awoke to hammer-and-sickle flags hanging from lamp-posts, its local newspaper transformed into a Soviet propaganda journal, its citizens’ firearms confiscated and handed to loyal communist troops, and – most alarmingly – its mayor detained under armed guard.

It’s a fascinating and little-known byway of US history, and how the Wisconsin community of Mosinee arrived at that elaborate and eyebrow-raising simulation is the subject of the debut Fringe show from new theatre company Counterfactual. And what begins with a desire to educate US citizens about the true horrors of life under communism, as The Mosinee Project details, quickly becomes something far murkier, as lead players struggle for dominance, violent authenticity takes over from humdrum safety, and what was once make-believe veers worryingly close to reality. After all, how far does a made-up coup need to go before it becomes a full-scale takeover?

Delivered through authentic archive material and made-up imaginings, The Mosinee Project is as much about its creators’ search for the truth about the event as it is about this weird moment in 20th-century America. It’s a show full of dark humour and scarcely believable insights, and it captures shifting ideas of truth and deception with a sly wink of the eye, teetering beautifully between arch comedy and authentic horror. Performances by the trio of Millicent Wong, Martha Watson Allpress and Jonathan Oldfield are polished and persuasive, and video and lighting (by Dan Light and Catja Hamilton) are used to simple but dramatic effect.

The show’s conclusion might be somewhat anticlimactic, but a lingering sense of unease and disbelief replaces any simplistic moralising. It’s a gift of a story for theatre, but in The Mosinee Project, Counterfactual have transformed the events of 1950 into a playful interrogation of truth and fiction that confounds as much as it amuses. 

• Until 25 August

Gwyneth Goes Skiing, Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★ 

Truth and fiction collide and intermingle to entirely different ends in a very different show over at the Pleasance Courtyard. London-based duo of queer theatre mischief-makers Awkward Productions (pictured above, picture Johnny Ruff) have a lot to live up to following last year’s raw, raucous and in-your-face Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story (which itself returns to the Fringe from 20 to 24 August). It’s another iconic female figure that the company has in its sights for 2024, as none other than Gwyneth Paltrow is victim of their unique blend of merciless take-down and tongue-in-cheek adulation. More specifically, under the Awkward spotlight is the angel-like Paltrow’s Utah ski trip in 2016 and her subsequent run-in – quite literally – with optometrist Terry Sanderson on the slopes, for which Sanderson sued Paltrow three years later.

If you’re not up to speed on the latest popular culture court proceedings, relax. Gwyneth Goes Skiing fills in Paltrow’s Tinseltown background, her patchy filmography and her celebrity marriage (plus, of course, endless references to her high-end Goop health and beauty products) before immersing us in the lead-up to the collision and then in the toe-curling details of the trial itself – many of which, the Awkward duo gleefully admit, they’ve entirely made up. But they throw just about everything they can think of into their breathless, sarcastic show, from props and models to song and dance routines, puppetry, and plenty of pre-organised audience participation too. Linus Karp makes a shimmering, ethereal Paltrow, seeming to float across the stage in a self-righteous, Goop-fuelled miasma. His co-conspirator Joseph Martin growls his way through court proceedings as the unfortunate eye specialist, while simultaneously manipulating a crazed hand-puppet as Sanderson’s lawyer.

Yes, excess is definitely the order of the day – but it’s a joyful, exuberant excess that (mostly) drags you along with it. And despite its scattergun elements and its cartoonish abandon, it’s actually a carefully structured show in Karp and Martin’s slick production. Truth be told, Gwyneth Goes Skiing is probably a bit on the long side, as if Karp and Martin couldn’t resist another twist of the knife or another opportunity for a song-and-dance routine. But it’s a gloriously, unapologetically flamboyant hour of queer fun that, despite its vicious mockery, nonetheless manages to feel warm, even affectionate.

• Until 26 August

• The Edinburgh Fringe runs until 26 August 
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