My Welsh show of the day was Richard Burton Company's Tracy.

Written and created by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama BA Acting student Sophie Morgan-Price, Tracy follows a middle-management Tesco employee's attempts to deal with the tediousness of everyday life in the store.

Narcissistic to the core, Tracy is at odds with the niceties of her colleagues Gina and Tom, and the majority of the comedy springs from this contrast. However, the "monster" Morgan-Price has created runs a little thin. Although the controversy of her language is unsettling at times, there is no real depth to her darkness. It all seems very superficial. There is no sense of desperation or motivation beneath the character, and what really makes a monster is not just the way they act but the sense of justification they have, and that wasn't communicated to the audience.

In terms of production, there could have been a more inventive approach to the low-budget set, which focused on Tracy's office. The use of the tesco bags as temporary storage in the office was a little overhanded in the script, as was the use of an external narrator through the audio to set up events, which felt very stilted.

The script itself gave little in terms of story, and although there are some comic moments there is no real sense of crisis or conflict to balance this, so that by the end of the play having lost out in a promotion to Tom, she very quickly returns to her everyday life.

Whilst there are some interesting aspects to Tracy, the production lacked development and the script could have done with a bit more experience of the tediousness and bureaucracy of working in Tesco's. Whilst these middle-management monsters certainly do exist, it is only because their self-granduer and viciousness are coping mechanisms to get through the mundanity of their everyday life.

I also saw Theatre Stratford Canada's Hirsch.

Exploring Hungarian refugee John Hirsch's transformation of the Canadian theatrical and television scene, the production is as much about Hirsch as it is about the actor and creator of the work Alon Nashman, whose interaction with the director has left a long standing impression. 

Here is my initial reaction to the show:

However, in hindsight the production has grown on me in a lot of ways. It is true that it is very much a show for those with an interest in theatre: it is far harder to engage with the production as a self-enclosed story. But, it raises interests considerations about the impression that people leave on others when they pass, so that ultimately it is the memory that others carry of ourselves that remains. This was a theme throughout the show, but one that remained underneath the surface, so that about 15 minutes the character of Hirch breaks out to tell us that he could never be represented, that this character is by no means him, he was far more intelligent and spectacular than that. 

Alon Nashman's performance is a tour-de-force. He embodies Hirsch in all of his arrogance, cruelty, impossibly high standards, his belief in the beauty of his work, and it is difficult to know where Nashman ends and Hirsch begins in many ways.

Hirsch is a difficult show to pigeon-hole and immediately process, but I have a feeling that it may be one that has a lasting effect on me.

My apologies for the vague detail, but I am tired, and some things just don't fit into words properly. Well, easily.

Rob Auton: The Sky Show

Rob Auton is the everything that is important about the Fringe. I love his work. Last year he had the yellow show, all about yellow, this time the sky. Which was about the sky. But both were very different in tone; last year's show was a lot more slapstick, and, whilst there is still an abundance of good-natured humour, the sky show is perhaps more touching and personal. 

Auton's poetry has a lyricism of its own unlike anything else. It slowly unfolds and has a complete lack of pretension or over construction; everything feels natural, and yet totally unlike any other register of speech. His alternative perspective on life generates comedy by its contrast to most people's viewpoint, and yet by the end of the hour we start to see things  in Auton's eyes, and a world of possibilities are opened from which to better consider the everyday world. His performance is personal and a real pleasure to watch, and the DIY aesthetic he creates in the Banshee Labyrinth emphasises this remote and magical world that he takes us to.

If I were to recommend one show, Rob Auton: The Sky Show would be it. It embodies the best of low-budget with creative production, comedy with the personal and touching.

Here is a little interview Auton was kind enough to give, despite being properly knackered.