Review: Out of Woodstock (Underbelly Cowgate)

Mud-splattered mayhem and misogyny

Edinburgh locals like to complain about the Fringe and the chaos it brings to the city, but of all the festivals that could take over your home town I can think of worse. Woodstock 1999 is considered one of the most disastrous festivals in history, with three days of overcrowding, poor hygiene, and violence descending into a rioting inferno. Written and directed by Tom Foreman, Out of Woodstock is a one-man show staring Max Beken as nineteen-year-old Guy, who’s gearing up for a euphoric weekend. The only thing in his way is his fifteen-year-old sister.

Photo Credit: Tom Foreman

Beken enters wide-eyed and slack-jawed, mouthing along to a nu-metal cover of Faith by George Michael, every bit the 90s music-worshipping teenager. Throughout the performance, we are treated to high drag-quality lip syncs, not only to the music of the day but from Woodstocks gone by. He is perfectly cast in this role; he lights up when fun abounds, but whenever he is confronted for his behaviour he retreats into laddish mumbling. His transition from a carefree and excitable boy to an aggressive and misguided teenager is impeccable, a credit to his performance and Foreman’s writing. What is refreshing is that, unlike many tales of burgeoning bigotry, the victims of his rhetoric are never from sight. The casually sexist comments early in the play that one shrugs off as a product of the time snowball into outright misogyny, fuelled by his own heartbreak. It doesn’t take much for the audience to draw comparisons from this 90s hoodlum to the festering incel movements and riot mentalities of today.

When communicated through Guy as a character these comparisons are lightly handled, but Foreman’s direction is sometimes more forceful. The performance begins with the sounds of 90s adverts, celebrities, predictions of the future and political speeches, and it finishes with the same but from recent times to draw a more literal comparison and show how little has changed. As aptly skin-crawling as it is to hear Trump’s famous “grab them by the pussy” quote, it feels a little dated in 2024. That aside, the ending's real crime is that it is anticlimactic. A threat is established but too quickly resolved, leaving Foreman nowhere to go with the story or with the dramaturgy. Even so, it doesn’t spoil what has come before it; a high-energy, superbly-paced drama with a fantastic performance at its heart. It is rare to find a performance this youthful and perceptive, but Out of Woodstock pulls it off topless with a middle finger to the sky. Four stars.

Whispers from the Crowd: "True satirical theatre. You had to get it to get it." "It was kind of dark."

Out of Woodstock will play at 17:00 at Underbelly Cowgate until August 25th