Review by Steve Bennett

Population: 3 have made a Fringe name for themselves over the past three years with spirited role-reversal versions of Hollywood tales: first Gladiatrix, then The Wicker Woman and now this very loose take on David Lynch's The Elephant Man.

And it's more of the same, really ­ high camp acting, silly low-budget props, deliberately hammy acting and ridiculously over-the-top characters. It's better than their debut, if not up to the joy of their 2003 offering.

In style, it occupies an odd place somewhere between grand pantomime and an earnest retelling of the story, with more subtle in-jokes. It tends to be best when low-key, but plenty of the big gestures get laughs, too.

The actors have a suitably cheery spirit to them. James Bachman has the perfect demeanour for the stuffy Victorian doctor who introduces the hideous Elephant Woman into polite society, but with a playful glint in his eye when it comes to sending up the stupidity of it all.

Barunka O'Shaughnessy is suitably stern as the vengeful Russian freak show owner, while Lucy Montgomery is great fun as both a moustachioed pervert and a chirpy, heel-clicking Cockney flippertigibbet. Both girls at times plays the freak and one of them (Montgomery, I think, though it's hard to tell under the sackcloth) demonstrates a genuinely impressive operatic voice.

Yet for all the good-natured tomfoolery, the script is often found wanting, too slow and verbose at times and with several substantial segments failing to release any heartfelt laughs. Cheap and cheesy spoofs like this work on the relentless pace and density of jokes, which Elephant Woman doesn't quite deliver.

But it's all good clean fun, entertainingly performed, even if it's no Wicker Woman

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett