Fringe 2025 Wee Man Barrowland Ballet Assembly @ Dance bBase 12th August Review
Wee Man from Barrowland Ballet, Assembly @ Dance Base is a very physical work from this Glasgow based dance theatre company led by internationally respected choreographer/director Natasha Gilmore.
Over a performance time of one hour Wee Man, to quote from its own information, “explores the shifting – and stubbornly static – rules of masculinity across generations”. With a subject matter as broad as this to explore, I was expecting a lot from this production. Sadly, that was not what my experience was here.
This work simply failed to get my interest in the first five minutes or so and never did anything to regain it during its performance time. Although there were more than a few moments of humour here and some moments that many people in the audience seemed to empathise with, Wee Man, from my perspective, all too often just repeated well-worn phrases without taking this opportunity to raise important questions and really challenge the old stereotype of what being a man means to different people. I was finding it hard to understand here why this had a performance time of one hour when all that the work had to say could easily have been accomplished, and perhaps more effectively, in less than half that time.
Having said all of the above, Wee Man was obviously pleasing a lot of tonight’s audience who were giving it much applause at the end of the performance. Perhaps then it was just me and I was simply not the target audience that the company were trying to reach. Sometimes that just happens.
Review by Tom King ©2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Over a performance time of one hour Wee Man, to quote from its own information, “explores the shifting – and stubbornly static – rules of masculinity across generations”. With a subject matter as broad as this to explore, I was expecting a lot from this production. Sadly, that was not what my experience was here.
This work simply failed to get my interest in the first five minutes or so and never did anything to regain it during its performance time. Although there were more than a few moments of humour here and some moments that many people in the audience seemed to empathise with, Wee Man, from my perspective, all too often just repeated well-worn phrases without taking this opportunity to raise important questions and really challenge the old stereotype of what being a man means to different people. I was finding it hard to understand here why this had a performance time of one hour when all that the work had to say could easily have been accomplished, and perhaps more effectively, in less than half that time.
Having said all of the above, Wee Man was obviously pleasing a lot of tonight’s audience who were giving it much applause at the end of the performance. Perhaps then it was just me and I was simply not the target audience that the company were trying to reach. Sometimes that just happens.
Review by Tom King ©2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com