When you have a long, hot Saturday in front of you watching a wide range of comedy and theatre shows, it’s nice to start the day with something different and quirky.  TIMANDRA HARKNESS – TAKE A RISK certainly fits into no category and after a long Friday evening it felt good to jumpstart my day with a thought-provoking interactive show with a friendly audience involvement.

Timandra is a well-known presenter to those who listen to radio 4 and has a wide range of credits behind her including TV shows, a book, and a previous fringe show so she’s well equipped to provide a presentation centring around the maths and science of risk taking.

The show has an interactive element as well as random facets determined by pulling numbers out of a hat which determine which audience member will participate at any given time and dice shaking indicates what will happen at any point in the show so there a number of pathways the show can step down and no two shows are similar.

In order to pay tribute to the goddess of fortune, Fortuna, we are required to chant a mantra to her on a regular basis followed by Timandra discussing various aspects of fortune, chance, and displaying via her audience participation how taking a chance can have interesting consequences.  

The audience are also asked to bet on various outcomes during the show as audience members are requested to complete certain tasks and we are provided with gambling chips to assess the outcome.

Penultimately we see Timandra receive a hilarious confessional from an audience member and a quite bizarre marshmallow eating competition where we all bet on the winner which cumulated in a champion of the most chips on the day.  You may see something completely different; such is the random nature of the show.

At 11.45 in the morning it’s a nice time to start with a gentle, entertaining, and thought-provoking show played out with some bizarre silliness. It set me up nicely for another day at the Fringe.

Steve Heald