Post by @federicabalbi

Seen at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 18^th of August 2024

4 stars – honest and powerful storytelling

Gabriel Bird, class 1995, tells the story of the years he spent in Colorado in his original musical storytelling piece. From the first song, we already have a grasp of his dark humour, when with an accelerated, jolly rhythm he describes the setting of his attempted suicide.

Down in Colorado: Drugs, Depression and Other Diversions: as the subtitle rightly suggests, the main themes are treated with irony, but it is not a light-hearted show. One of the qualities of the show is in its brutal honesty: the filter of humour is held up against the emotional load, but towards the negative climax of the story, it has thinned enough to let words bare and emotions hit.

All along the show, live songs intertwine in perfect continuity with the story and provide a musical counterpart for the humour, as the performer sings and plays on the guitar his original songs. Song composition is always surprising, varying in rhythms and moods, with a common country music inspiration.

Despite his remarkable resistance to showing off virtuosity, Gabriel Bird is an excellent performer. In particular, the first part of the story is sided by his great mime technique, small supplements that add detail and do not appear redundant. Movement could be used more to support later moments of the show, when the spoken narrative tends to prevail.

Along the narrative, the protagonist finds reasons to cling onto life in the most unexpected places. Another significant resistance is worth mentioning: there is no moral to this story, no ‘easy’ way out of it. It is the story of a period in a life, with its extreme lows and few extreme highs. And somewhere in-between them, the non-obvious urge to live on is newly found.

Down in Colorado was produced by Fraternal Compagnia, that also brought the show Masquerade Mask to this year’s Fringe.

Performer’s website: https://gabriel-bird.com/

Company’s website: https://www.fraternalcompagnia.it/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fraternal_compagnia/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fraternalcompagnia#