Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

After a week at the Fringe seeing eight shows a day, sometimes a little gimmick can be just the ticket, and American comedian Dominique Salerno’s one-woman sketch show set entirely inside a box (looks like about one metre cubed to me?) could potentially fit the bill nicely.

Salerno uses the confines of the cube in some fun ways, cleverly utilising four panels that allow her to block off quadrants of the space. So she can cut off the bottom half and perform a puppet show, alternate sides to illustrate a couple arguing on either side of a door or, in one of her neatest tricks, leave only the top right quadrant uncovered so she can pose in profile and play a postage stamp.

It puts a slightly weak foot forwards, with the aforementioned argument followed by an energetic mime of a spy infiltrating a building. Both sequences are examples of innovative staging choices let down by broad writing that fails to develop beyond the initial premise – and the premise ain’t much to write home about.

Other scenes take a much more interesting starting point, like the lonely giantess who washes cars in her mouth, or a weird one about an adventurer who accidentally becomes Pope while conducting a years-long search for secret tunnels under the Vatican. These are clever, weird ideas that raise sincere applause from the audience during the lengthy pauses between each sketch, but very little laughter.

Approached on the level of mime, it goes down a little smoother. Using shoes on her hands and feet, Salerno gives us a wonderful illusion of a couple dancing upside down on the ceiling of the box. There’s also an atonal shift in one sketch into a pure horror mode with no reaching for humour at all, and The Box Show works better in those moments when it’s not trying to be funny.

It’s worth seeing for the stagecraft and the ingenuity, just don’t expect to laugh too much.

Review date: 16 Aug 2023
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard