FAKE NEWS
Performed & written by Osman Baig
He wanted to break news… but the news almost broke him.
A budding journalist lands a dream internship at the country’s biggest online news organization. That’s where he stumbles on an earth-shattering story and decides to click publish. There’s just one problem: it’s completely untrue.
In a vibrant and busy Southwark Playhouse the ‘large’ stage was playing Hamlet to a packed house and on the ‘little’ stage Osman Baig was performing his Edinburgh Fringe show FAKE NEWS to an almost sell out audience.
The phrase FAKE NEWS has captured the imagination in the last 5 years and is now a term regularly used when before the years of Trump it just didn’t seem to exist. The one man show of the same name is performed by journalist turned actor Osman Baig and we (the audience) sit in his lecture hall, as interns keen to hear his breaking news, joining him as he retells the story of what happened in an online news media office, The Millennial Times. With just a table, chair and glass of water for company Osman holds the audience throughout the one hour monologue and in a confined studio space brilliantly switches between characters, introducing his fellow slightly flawed interns and the idolised boss, using humour along with subtle changes in lighting and sound.
Although originally written for Edinburgh in 2018, Osman has brought the show up to date with current affairs. The really impressive aspects of the show are the writing and the story telling as well as just ‘how does he remember all that stuff’. On a couple of occasions his clearly well-crafted funny lines and asides could have been a bit more ‘stand-up’ – there were moments where his delivery seemed too concerned with pronouncing every word perfectly to ensure the audience doesn’t miss anything, which occasionally pulled away from the comic timing – but that could have been just me – the audience clearly enjoyed the performance, the writing and the show. It was great to see such a busy theatre on a Tuesday evening.
Osman is a great writer and I look forward to his next show, whether on the stage or the screen.
Review: Artspod ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fake News closes at Southwark Playhouse on 28th Jan and is at Sheffield Playhouse for one night only on 31st Jan
Also at Southwark Playhouse
Lazarus Theatre Company presents
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
12 JAN – 4 FEB 2023
Ticket Prices:
£28 | £22.50 Concessions | All Previews £16
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