We have finished our run of dates with Fifteen Minute Break but will soon be writing a new play.
Keep your ears open. Bunts x
FIFTEEN MINUTE BREAK
By Tuppenny Bunters.
A quartet of stories that take place in the backstairs area of various settings. Be it staff room, dressing room or smoking area, there is always a conversation to earwig on. From the Radiophonic workshop canteen to the back lot of the Mary Poppins film set, everyone deserves a break, but you don't always get to choose who you spend it with!
Fifteen Minute Break ***
There’s a lot to like about this quartet of stories from English husband-and-wife duo The Tuppenny Bunters. Why Fiona and David Dulake have chosen to name themselves after a derogatory term for Georgian prostitutes is anyone’s guess but their writing style owes more than a little to acknowledged influences Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Like the Steptoe and Son creators, the Dulakes mine mundane moments for comedy and the four stories take place during breaks in waiting rooms, backstage dressing rooms and the Ink and Paint department at a world-famous studio lot in Burbank, California. All the stories are consistently engaging, although the third “Hellzapoppins” – a notably faster-paced tale of stressed-out Hollywood songwriters set in 1963 – is a real highlight. The Dulakes play co-workers, partners, strangers and – remarkably – blood relatives in the last vignette. They share a very natural comic chemistry – perhaps unsurprisingly as the couple are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary this month. This is a solid Fringe debut and a good excuse to escape the festival blast radius for an enjoyable hour. Hopefully the Dulakes will be back to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. Rory Ford. The Scotsman.
Fifteen Minute Break - Highly Recommended
The venue is a short distance from the city centre, and well worth the stroll along Leith Walk. With no particular expectations I settled down to watch this show comprising a series of four short vignettes written and performed by the duo Tuppeny Bunters. Sharply written and delivered with considerable wit and charm, these take the audience into a series of very different scenes all framed in the context of a "15-minute break". It's a very effective device for two-hander drama, giving enough time to establish different characters, their relationships, deliver entertaining observational comments and moments which are laugh-out-loud funny. The writing is insightful and often barbed, but there is an inherent warmth and sympathy to the performances which, while varied, wisely hold back from over-the-top caricature.
This is the sort of show that characterises the best of the Edinburgh Fringe - a true mix of off-the-wall comedy and drama which feels confident to move outside of the formulaic cabaret of the one-hour timeslot. It bears a closer relation the stand-out TV comedy classics of Galton and Simpson than the short stage plays of Ayckbourn, and is all the better for it. One of the gems of the 2022 Fringe - it will be interesting to see what this duo does next. Scott Basham.
