WC Fields: Lightly Boiled

Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2007

W.C.Fields - hard-boiled, acerbic, arrogant and biting. He went from runaway child to runaway success as the world’s highest paid juggler, a wildly hilarious vaudeville act and finally one of the greatest movie comics of his age.

The self-styled ‘Great One’ had great self-belief, but behind the sharp wit and brash exterior there was a hinterland of emotional damage. Hidden from public view were a violent childhood, a broken marriage and a separation from his own son, not so hidden was a lifelong dependency on alcohol.

Without short-changing those keen to enjoy the Fields’ stock-in-trade of caustic comedy, Simon Rae's new play presents a fully rounded portrait of the great comedian.

You are invited to join him in the grips of delirium tremens as he reviews his life.