Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project

September 1, 2023

John Scott continues his journey around Edinburgh fringe and checks out Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project

A dysfunctional drum and guitar brother and sister duo with a penchant for black and red. Sounds familiar? No, not The White Stripes but Die Roten Punkte (The Red Dots), the self-proclaimed Best Band In The World. All is not well in the Roten Punkte world; tensions are running high between the siblings. Astrid (Claire Bartholomew) is a no-show so Otto (Daniel Tobias) takes advantage of her absence to unveil his solo project. No sooner has he begun than Astrid arrives and sets up her drum kit for her own gig, dropping cymbals and ruining Otto’s performance.

Resolute in their determination that they will not play as a band but realising that they need each other to perform, the pair agree to perform their “joint solo project”, playing together but separately. Otto’s punk rock tribute to Iggy and Stooges, I Want To Be Your Kitten, is blissfully unaware of how derivative it is. Astrid’s invitation to sample her Tasty Snak has nothing to do with fine dining, or indeed food.

Otto’s inability to comply with the physical boundaries that Astrid insists on sees her taping off half of the stage -older audience members will be reminded of Steptoe and Son – as a condition of continuing to play. Otto thinks he has the upper hand: Astrid can’t play guitar so can’t do without him. Astrid proves him wrong with seemingly the minimum of effort, further undermining him and deepening their rift. Ultimately though, co-dependency triumphs and the siblings reach an uneasy truce.

Otto and Astrid’s humour relies on us buying into their ridiculousness while empathising with their insecurities. The best band in the world also need to have good tunes and fortunately, Otto and Astrid do. Whether it is Otto bearing his heart on his sleeve, witheringly described by Astrid as “Depeche Mode on ketamine covering The Wiggles” or Astrid’s Nico-on-downers My Futures, the parodies are spot on and you will leave with at least one of them rattling round your head as an earworm for the rest of the evening.

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