Review: The Good Scout at the Space @ Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh Fringe

Writer & Director: Glenn Chandler

Following last year’s awarding winning Kids Play, Boys of the Empire productions stage a brand new play about the meeting between Boy Scouts and the Hitler Youth. Once more Glen Chandler makes a light humoured, intricate play full of twists.

Chandler is the first playwright to tackle the subject of these two groups meeting together and he approaches it well with historic moments alongside the story between these two sets of boys and the friendship that develops.

There’s plenty of wit and visual humour that this production uses. The extravagant recollection of historic events is one example of this which works very well. Throughout the script there’s light naturalistic charm that creates this warmth atmosphere between all four boys and lead boy scout, Will Parrish’s mum Rose who Amanda Bailey plays.

As with other Chandler productions, there’s lots of twists and turns which keep you on your toes until the final twist of the tale at the end It keeps the rhythm of the piece and means there’s not a moment you’re not wanting to see what happens next.

Bailey is a great mother figure for all of the boys and shares some sweet moments with Simon Stache as Friedrich Dorf in particular. Clement Charles plays Will Parrish who is also a local newspaper reporter. While Charles shows a naive side of the character, he also shows an element of bravery and strength that’s anchored by friendship and loyalty.

Lewis Allcock is the shadowy figure of John Deary who only has a little bit of stage time but in the time he has he creates this unknown British gentleman with more to him that meets the eye.

Charlie Mackay plays the young and naive Jacob who seems blinkered by lust and love for Clemente Lohr’s character of  Gerhard. Lohr does well at keeping his cards close to his chest to ensure the character’s true motives are not revealed until just the right time.

The Good Scout is an intense yet fun history lesson into an area of our past that has yet to be fully explored. With a very talented cast and a gripping story this is another top notch production from Boys of the Empire.

* Decision based on a ticket price of £12 and an 80p booking fee. For more info on this value for money rating please visit here: Introducing a new kind of rating