ELVIS DIED OF BURGERS at Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★★
★★★★★ ELVIS DIED OF BURGERS | Summerhall
For a show which places death in its title, this is a beautiful, life-affirming show from BLINK Dance Theatre!
BLINK co-directors Delson Weekes, Vicki Hawkins, Francis Majekodunmi & Rachel Gildea give impressive performances in this non-linear show which revolves around the role food plays in our lives, from the extremes of eating disorders through to the euphoric highs that something as simple as a decent burger can bring.
It reflects poorly on the fringe, and theatre more widely, that diverse casts like this one still feel like outliers. The BLINK team are a neurodiverse group who devise interdisciplinary, boundary-pushing productions, and ELVIS DIED OF BURGERS is certainly a bold, entertaining example. We need more of these works, and showcases for performers like these, on our stages all year round!
The non-linear nature of the narrative make ELVIS a hard show to describe in a way that really does it justice. It’s about food, but it’s not all about food – it’s as much about people and personalities, it’s about speaking real lived experiences, it’s about letting go and showing off and being loud and breaking out of the confines of the dreaded checkboxes. There’s drag, there’s song and dance, there are many laughs, there’s Elvis (of course) – and there’s honest, heartfelt emotion.
ELVIS DIED OF BURGERS is one of those shows that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy inside – what more can you ask from a piece of theatre, eh?
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like: nice pubs, film marathons, not doing real marathons, bad comedy, plays/musicals with shorter second halves, and the Oxford comma.
