Edinburgh Quotes and Reviews

The Scotsman (Joyce McMillan)
"High-octane, top-decibel drama... Bursts with talent, potential and energy...Leaves its audience gasping for breath... Racked have left a vivid calling-card on the Edinburgh Fringe, in other words; and my guess is that we'll be hearing from them again."

The Guardian (Lyn Gardner)
"Megan Ford's slice of celebrity wannabe and back-stabbing bitchiness...has a raw energy, a scabrous humour and would appear to be a distressingly accurate portrait of a generation of young women who think that you can never be too blonde, too thin, too rich or too famous. Even if achieving the latter can only be done by having a video of yourself having sex all over the internet. The girls drip envy and bitchiness in equal measure, their personal relationships tainted by unrealistic celebrity worship and the need to walk all over each other to get ahead in the fame game... Performed with real brio, and pointedly reminds that when you join the herd you lose your sense of self."

TimeOut
"Elsewhere, other young female theatre-makers showed a lot of promise. New London theatre collective Racked gave audiences a good time with their headline-grabbing ‘The Assassination of Paris Hilton’ – a thirty-minute play staged at breakneck pace in the bogs of the Assembly Room. This makes up for its shortcomings (a two-strand plot that couldn’t possible be tied up in the time allowed) with performances of tremendous verve, and super-bitchy dialogue."

The List
"There’s a lot to like here – the five plotting Paris-alikes are suitably un-self-aware, decrying the über-valley girl while at the same time embodying her worst traits."

The Herald/ On Stage Scotland
"This short and snappy eavesdropping session is as much about the insecurities and love-hate friendships of five young women as it is about their feelings towards the vacuous heiress of its title... Megan Ford's script certainly has an authentic ring to it - depressingly, this feels more like documentary than satire... This is a very entertaining 30 minutes, and the convincing performances are a delight."

What's On Stage
"A light-hearted poke at our modern-day fascination with celebrity, it also paints a depressingly familiar picture of wayward female ambition. Perhaps the next time protective parents wave their daughters off to the bright city lights, they really will wonder whether that skirt is just a little too short."

Fest/The Skinny
"Spunky, fun..." "Makes an interesting point about the brutalistic social hierarchy of the modern, moronic Anglo-Saxon world, in particular that of young women. Becoming “BFFs” with a celebrity is shown to be the all-consuming preoccupation of this gaggle of hedonistic idiots and it paints a depressingly familiar picture of female ambition, one increasingly born out in reality, as many more young girls harbour the desire to become glamour models than doctors."

Hairline
"This is a fascinating concept and for the large part works pleasantly well as we become fly’s on the wall, eves-dropping on their funny stories and bitchy gossip, performed brilliantly by the all female cast. An unique piece of theatre that never outstays its welcome."

All The Festivals
"Something a bit out of the ordinary... Never tedious or boring."

Evening Standard
"Feistily performed."

British Theatre Guide
"The Assassination of Paris Hilton is a pleasant interlude that amuses and even provokes just a little thought and since that is just what it sets out to do, should be marked up as a success for new company Racked Theatre."

ThreeWeeks
"... I enjoyed it. It has to be one of the fringe's more avant-garde shows, being set in the ladies bogs, which despite being sweaty and cramped, creates a good atmosphere what with its sanitary smell. The acting is over the top, which suits the over the top characters who are hell bent on either schmoozing with Paris Hilton in a desperate attempt to become famous themselves or killing her. The play does well to ridicule the shallow lifestyle..."

Edfringe.com, Audience Review, Jeanne
"**** Four Stars. A great send-up of our vacuous celebrity culture." http://www.edfringe.com/reviews/read.html?id=14763