Review by Steve Bennett

The Hotel is one of those high-concept Fringe shows you really ought to sign up for, if only for the experience alone.

The brainchild of the ever-inventive Mark Watson, this ambitious project takes over an entire property in Edinburgh – the former home of ArthurArt, in fact – converting it into a shambolic family-run hotel with secrets behind every door.

Guests are encouraged – for just one hour a day – to wander around at will, poking around the rooms to see whatever they might find. In the chillout room, a guru, one foot behind his head, utters soothing words of wisdom as enlightenment–seekers try to ignore the agonising screams of pain from the massage room next door. In the boardroom an unconventional, but hugely competitive, job interview is taking place, spilling out into the main road below. In the business centre, the computers seem stuck on a limited number of web pages, not all of them salubrious.

There is a hell of a lot going on here – far more than anyone could fit into an hour’s visit. I certainly wasted a bit too much time queuing in the Kafkaesque processing centre, for tests as bizarre as they were intimidating; and barely ventured into the cabaret room in the basement, where Marcel Lucont and Edward Aczel entertained. One bedroom is strewn with so many angry letters, you could spend the entire 60 minutes just reading these; and I missed the lost property office entirely.

A huge number of festival comics have been roped into this semi-improvised endeavour. The Idiots Of Ants serve lunch, music and games in the restaurant, Mike Wozniak offers training tips in the fitness centre, while George Ryegold attends the toilet, to name but a few.

Despite the robotic reassurances of the staff, every room offers a disconcerting experience, with impeccable attention to detail should you stop to rummage around. As a venture, The Hotel means absolutely nothing, and is strange more than it’s funny, but nevertheless, it should be on every Fringe-goers to-do list.

Review date: 13 Aug 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett