Edinburgh Fringe: Beautiful Burnout
Every year there is a standout drama at the Fringe that everyone rushes to see — Black Watch, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 12 Angry Men and The Odd Couple are among those to have ruled the roost over the last decade.
- By Jack McKeown
- Published in the Courier : 13.08.10
- Published online : 13.08.10 @ 07.27pm
This year the one that everybody's talking about in such context is Beautiful Burnout, a hard-hitting drama about boxing produced by Frantic Assembly and the National Theatre of Scotland.
Set in a spit-and-sawdust boxing gym somewhere in or around Glasgow, it features Ewan Stewart as grizzled trainer Bobby Burgess (possibly a tribute to the late Burgess Meredith, who played gym manager Mickey in the Rocky series), mentor to a ragtag outfit of hard-working, stargazing hopefuls.
We meet his current crop of wannabe world champions, who include the razor-sharp Ajay and his only female boxer, Dina, who fights as an outlet for her rage.
They're joined by Cameron Burns, a raw but naturally gifted fighter who is weaned off crisps, cigarettes and criminality by Bobby's relentless, pitiless dominance.
In Bobby's gym, Bobby's word is law — "there's no room for democracy." So when his best fighter, Ajay, wants to debate the merits of showboating — pleasing the crowd while antagonising the opponent into making a mistake is his argument — Bobby will not brook the dissent.
Ignoring the pain it causes him, he ejects Ajay from his gym, setting up a future encounter with the talented former protege and his next-best fighter, Burns.
The gym action is offset by the domestic situation of Burns, whose loving mother frets about the danger of her son's passion. Lorraine McIntosh's portrayal of the fretting, powerless mum is one of the play's more heartbreaking performances.
The action takes place on a raised stage that features a revolving ring. This allows for some stunningly choreographed fight scenes, incorporating blindingly fast exchanges of punches and slow-motion sections that mimic the 'bullet time' effect in the Matrix films.
Also good are the training scenes, and apart from Burns (who struggles to do full press-ups) the cast have got themselves in admirable shape.
The soundtrack is by Underworld, in a nod to Trainspotting, whose gritty realism and merciless conclusion it emulates.
Boxing's faded greatness
In its mingling of physical perfection and physical catastrophe, Beautiful Burnout also owes a debt to Clint Eastwood's 2004 masterpiece Million Dollar Baby — this is nodded to in Coach Bobby's calling Dina his "million dollar baby."
Boxing seems an odd sport for a sell-out drama to be based around, given that it's not popular any more. Its golden era was the 70s, but even throughout the 80s and 90s world champion fighters were household names.
The greedheads who introduced pay-per-view in a quest for a short-term buck ensured that the long-term future of the sport was terminal — the names Klitschko, Pacquaio, Mayweather and Haye have none of the resonance of Ali, Foreman, Robinson, Hagler and Leonard.
Yet the sport retains a grassroots popularity and an aura of faded greatness, and it is this that Beautiful Burnout taps into.
It treats the controversy surrounding the sport's danger with even handedness — tragedy happens, but boxing's much safer than horse racing.
I liked Beautiful Burnout a great deal. The production values are much higher than average and the action scenes are quite simply excellent. Most impressive by far, however, are the tough, lyrical, believable characters inhabited by the show's talented cast.
Beautiful Burnout is at the Pleasance Courtyard at 7.30pm until August 29.
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