Midge Lema / Lemabean Productions
Bean is trapped aboard her spaceship – and now, unfortunately, so are we. She has lost her memories and must attempt to recover them through a series of songs played on her keyboard. As those memories gradually return, we begin to discover why Bean went to space in the first place.
Bean vs The Robots is billed as a sci-fi exploration of grief, told through the funny, wistful and weird perspective of a lost space traveller. It combines musical theatre with solo performance as Bean attempts to piece together her past while navigating the strange world she now finds herself in.
Now, I haven’t had much success with sci-fi solo female performers at the Fringe, so I went into Bean vs The Robots hoping this might be the production that changed my mind.
Midge Lema sets the show’s expectations from the start and immediately establishes Bean as an unusual character. The audience is brought into her world from the get-go, and it doesn’t take long before you realise this isn’t going to be a conventional musical theatre performance.
Unfortunately, I chose the wrong seat.
I’ll come back to that.
Vocally, Midge’s performance was mixed on the day I attended. There were glimpses of a delightful singing voice and moments where her vocals worked really well, but at other times they weren’t as strong.
Of course, this is the Fringe. Performers are doing show after show, day after day, and musical theatre places an additional demand on the voice. It may simply have been that Midge’s vocals needed a little rest when I saw the production, because there were certainly moments where you could hear what her voice was capable of.
The show itself actually contains some good elements. There is a story running through the production and the songs weren’t so bad that I wanted to run for the hills – which, given some of my experiences with musical theatre, is definitely a positive!
As Bean begins recovering her memories, the show gradually reveals more of the emotional reasoning behind her journey into space. Grief sits underneath the silliness, songs and sci-fi setting, giving the production a more heartfelt core than you might initially expect.
There are also some genuinely humorous moments. Particular ‘Gollum’ moments certainly stood out and got a reaction from me.
However, one element that didn’t work for me was the audience participation.
This is where my choice of seat came back to haunt me.
I was sitting at the front because I was reviewing the production and wanted a good view of what was happening on stage. What I hadn’t expected was to become involved in the action myself. I even attempted the tried-and-tested audience technique of avoiding eye contact, but alas, there was no escape from Bean.
My issue isn’t that audience participation exists – plenty of shows use it very effectively – but that I don’t recall seeing a warning about it on the Fringe listing. Sitting in the front row shouldn’t automatically mean enrolment into the performance.
For me, there needs to be a clearer opportunity for an audience member to indicate whether they are comfortable participating. Someone might have anxiety, be uncomfortable with attention or simply, as in my case, want to sit back and observe the production.
A little more safeguarding around participation would therefore improve the experience without removing the interactive element for those audience members who would absolutely love to get involved.
This also affected my expectations of the show. Bean vs The Robots is billed as musical theatre and solo performance, with its description focusing heavily on sci-fi and grief. I therefore went in expecting primarily a musical production. What I actually experienced had a much stronger comedy and interactive element than the description had led me to anticipate.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think the show’s description could better prepare audiences for the type of performance they are about to see.
The script itself was okay and the overall performance was okay. There are definite flashes of something stronger here: some good ideas, humorous moments, an interesting central character and a more emotional story underneath the surface.
Bean vs The Robots still needs improvement and tightening in places, particularly around its vocals and how the interactive elements are handled, but it certainly isn’t the worst show I’ve seen.
There’s enough here to make Bean’s strange little journey through space an interesting one – just choose your seat carefully.
Overall, 3 stars.
Bean vs The Robots: A Solo Show Musical | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Grief, Gollum and a keyboard in space – wonderfully weird
About the Author
