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Why Pay More?
Reviews from Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2006
Written and directed by David Benson
Theatre Guide London,
Gerald Berkowitz, August 2007
Ten years ago the Princess of Wales died. Nine years ago David Benson was brave enough to look at the orgy of national mourning with a jaundiced eye, in a show that might have come a bit too early. He has revived and adapted it now for the tenth anniversary and, judging from the delighted audience response, the world has caught up to him.
Benson is a monologist-comic-singer with considerable personal charm and an attractively bitchy sense of humour, and he takes delight in reminding us, for instance, that the backlash against Diana had already begun before her death, so the same people who mourned her so ostentatiously had been sneering at her a week before. He comments tellingly on things like the curious compulsion the British have to put memorial bouquets on railings, on the responses of TV commentators (Will Richard get Judy to cry?) and on the various conspiracy theories that sprang up almost as quickly as the mourning.
He's at his best , that is to say, naughtiest in taking us through the funeral ceremony, from the entrance march of celebrities, through the carefully rehearsed performances of Blair, John and Spencer, to the burial in what, he reminds us, was traditionally the Spencer family's pet cemetery. And every time you think he's gone a bit too far, you find yourself and the rest of the audience coming right along with him in the delighted celebration of your shared cynicism.
Audience reviews from The Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The best show of my week 13 Aug 2007
reviewer: Tony Mitchell, United Kingdom
I spent a marvellous week in Edinburgh and stumbled on this show and am so glad that I did. By far, the most thoughtfully designed and performed show that also got me thinking. David is a real talent. I will watch out for his shows in future.
Highly Recommended 08 Aug 2007
reviewer: Jenny, Glasgow
I agree with Christopher Barber, this is about as good as the fringe gets, it's in a small venue so it's very cosy he engages his audience and draws them with him as he talks about the death and funeral of Princess Diana and how it affected the world at the time, slipping into and out of character, doing definitely the funniest Barbara Cartland impression I've ever seen and keeping the audience laughing effortlessly. We've seen his shows for the last three years and it's always one of those things you book knowing you'll really enjoy it. Can't recommend this highly enough. :)
Mourning Glory 07 Aug 2007
reviewer: Christopher Barbour, United Kingdom
Fringe regular Benson takes a nostalgic, but never sentimental, look back the events of the first week of September 1997. Like a meaningful-consequenceless Kennedy assassination, the week of public insanity, sorry mourning, following the death of Princess Diana is a real “where were you when…” moment. Ten years later Benson revives his “one year later” show from 1998 taking us through the events of the week and casting a withering eye over them all. His cabaret-lecture approach allows him to impersonate newsreaders, slack jawed gawkers, showbiz stars and royalty with predictably hilarious results. He picks up brilliantly on the absurdity of the media coverage, culminating in Richard Madeley asking a number of ill children to simply name their illnesses because it’s “what she would have wanted.” Most commendably Benson does not shy away from reminding his audience that Diana had been persona non grata in the weeks immediately preceding her death and skewering the hypocracy of the media and some of the public for their near instantaneous u-turn in the early hours of the 31st of August. Complete with his now-customary singing interludes, Benson succeeds in taking the audience on an enthralling and comedic journey. David Benson – Nothing But Pleasure – the title says it all.
David Benson - Nothing But Pleasure 14 Aug 2007
reviewer: Shirley Jacobs, England
David Benson is one of the most talented artists ever to grace the Edinburgh Festival. This year, he presents a revised -10 years after - version of his "Mourning Glory", concerning the events following the death of Princess Diana and the media and our own reactions at the time. Benson's shows are always very funny indeed, but also make the audience re-think their own behaviour and beliefs. Those who have seen him will need no urging to rush off to this show; anyone else, go and find out why we go back year after year!
Captivating theatre 14 Aug 2007
reviewer: Herr Cutt, United Kingdom
A stunning one-man show. Wonderful rapport with the audience. Thought-provoking and humorous at the same time. A performance of the highest quality.
Extraordinary rapport 14 Aug 2007
reviewer: Geoff Riley, United Kingdom
The best Fringe performers establish a direct and immediate rapport with their audience. I saw David Benson last year and was riveted by his portrayal of Kenneth Williams ... this revivial of his 1998 Fringe show is timely, terrifically funny and thought-provoking... as a one man show, another tour de force from David Benson.
Will Howells' blog
16th August
David Benson - Why Pay More? at the Pleasance is the third of David Benson’s one man shows I’ve seen at the Fringe, following last year’s Conspiracy Cabaret and 2004’s Haunted Stage. There is less of a central theme than to those shows , but once again Benson’s material is strongly autobiographical. It’s a mixture of songs and anecdotes, a deceptively gentle set with sudden and surprising moments of pathos. Benson is engaging and charismatic when himself and thoroughly convincing when he brings to life the various and varied characters in his stories. This is neither comedy nor theatre but an entertaing, thoughtful and enjoyable show.
The same day, I went to see Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, the award-winning show which brought Benson acclaim when he first performed it in 1996 and which has returned to the Festival for its tenth anniversary. (Five shows of the ten show run remain as the time of writing.) It’s a touching mixture of biography and autobiography, bounding from scenes from Williams’s life to scenes from Benson’s, from soliloquy to audience interaction, and from comedy to tragedy.
Benson’s definitive portrayal of Williams is uncanny and a little eerie, not so much an impersonation but a real recreation of his not especially likeable character. Benson shows off his skills further as the voices of Frankie Howerd, Maggie Smith and most of the cast of Dad’s Army make appearances too. But this funny, affecting show is about Williams and Benson - raw and personal for both of them - and ten years on there’s no question the Fringe First award it won was well-deserved.
One4review - 4 stars
15th August
David Benson is a Fringe veteran, an accomplished writer and versatile performer. In this show he picks out memorable periods in his Fringe career beginning with his first appearance as a drama student in a play at a church hall in Polwarth.
His anecdotes are witty and engrossing, particularly his fond memories of his involvement in an experimental theatre production involving a group of homeless men. He has a good go at reviewers and the rotten review the first show he was involved in received, will remain with him for ever. Since this show is thoroughly enjoyable, this review will probably pass him by.
By the way, if you catch his ‘Think No Evil’ Kenneth Williams show, he sings the French song in this show.
An entertaining and impressive hour that left me wanting more.
Vivien Devlin,
Edinburgh Guide
1 dram = 4 stars
11th August
Actor, singer and comic entertainer, David Benson, has been performing at the Fringe for a staggering 24 years. The first few shows were as a schoolboy, college student and in community theatre, working his way up the professional ladder. In 1996 he stunned audiences and critics with his brilliantly perceptive portrayal of Kenneth Williams in Think no Evil of Us which won a Fringe First and catapulted him into showbiz stardom - he has never looked back. To the cynics who say the Edinburgh Fringe rarely finds new talent, Benson's Festival fame and success tells a very different story.
Previous shows have involved humourous monologues on various themes - Princess Diana, ghosts, conspiracy theories - involving an elaborate set, costumes, music and lighting. In this new show there's just an empty stage, a high stool and a microphone. That's confidence for you. The theme this year is David Benson himself, reminiscing the good times and the bad at the Fringe - the experience as an actor putting on a show. He describes the boys' school production of a Biblical rock opera which received a dismal 2 star review, putting him off critics for life, then there's an experimental play using real life homeless people, with affectionate impersonations of some Grassmarket characters clutching their cans of Carlsberg. Through stories, sketches and a few delightful songs, we follow Benson's "dramatic" journey around the Fringe.
There are few performers with whom I would gladly spend an hour hearing about their life and work. But with David Benson, there is not an ounce of vanity. He is not simply an actor, but a philosopher, involving the audience, questioning our perspective and views of the world, politics and society today. And what's more he sings like a young Frank Sinatra. This is pure Fringe theatre at its best - genuinely unique and inspiring entertainment, which reveals as much about Benson as it does about ourselves.
The Stage
9th August
David Benson has not only amassed a remarkable string of stories about the fringe but also the skill to recount them as he has been performing at Edinburgh almost every year since 1983. Up for a reprise of his long-running one-man show about Kenneth Williams, the actor has also opted to give us a disarmingly humorous, behind the scenes view of some of the productions that have brought him north of the border.
His first role was as a vamp in a student musical at a school venue, where they dished out free food in an attempt to lure in the public.
Later he became involved in a string of Fringe First-winning plays by the Grassmarket Project, one of which roped real life homeless people into the cast. Benson impersonating Jimmy the druggie, ad-libbing a scene while cadging an Armani suit off his hostel manager for a job interview, is as funny as it is poignant.
When not doing Williams’ arch rendition of The French Song, Benson also shows a great natural voice a la Sinatra and he croons a few smoky numbers to punctuate the narrative. Unsurprisingly, the audience lapped it up.
Clearly on to a winner, he should make this a regular outing for every Edinburgh August.
Gerald Berkowitz
Theatre Guide London
7th August
Fringe veteran David Benson¹s new show is based on his experiences and memories of past Festivals, presented in a casual chat with the audience. This is a risky business, since it requires that the audience find him interesting, but fortunately Benson is a performer of immense charm, who quickly wins over even those who have never seen him before.
He makes his tales of coming to Edinburgh first as a student, then as a member of the fabled Grassmarket Project, and eventually as a solo performer, amusing and engrossing in equal measure, and is the rare performer whose hour seems too short for your desire to remain in his company. Such is the nature of the show that he is likely to focus on one memory or another so that each day¹s performance will be different.
But all are punctuated by the occasional song, delivered in a strong and attractive Sinatra-ish style that suggests both a potential subject for his next show and an alternative career if he ever gets tired of the monologue form.