REVIEW: Democrazy, Action Theatre, EdFringe 2026 ★★★

Yes the image is bliss… a tropical beach. Edoardo Vanoni and Denis Haugh sing and play the ukulele, carefree. But then Vanoni’s character gets lost and encounters a strange man who is moved by Vanoni’s Italian heritage. ‘Ah, you’re lucky to live in Europe’, he says, ‘there you have Demo—crazy!’. 

So begins Action Theatre’s hour, the first of a mask-work diptych they’re bringing to theSpaceUK all month. They’re both rather traditional affairs although this one’s the more original of the two. It’s billed as Balinese mask, and the masks themselves are beautiful. Writer-Director Rupert Raison acquired them from a maskmaker based in Bali. A king played by Vanoni is the most recognisably Balinese-style sequence, and quite a moving one. Despite this, the show mostly focuses on a half-mask – so for the three saddos like myself that go expecting Balinese mask know it’s probably closer to a contemporary mask play. 

The content of the play is the history of this ambigious tropical island. Haugh’s strange man tells the story of the aforementioned king, his banishment, and then the democratically elected arrival of ‘Richard Tater’, a half-mask played by Vanoni. This Dick-Tater is clearly a tyrant and restricts the human rights and freedoms of the inhabitants on the island. It’s maybe a shame for so much of this work to rely on the spoken language of the half-mask, as in an 11am slot clowning is really quite a hard sell. Haugh and Vanoni perform the material with aplomb however, and are genuinely charming performers. Tater’s declerations of unjust war lead to some wonderfully funny eproctophilic mouth noises from Generals and Soldiers (all played by the two actors) and the crowd are encoruaged to express their political voices. 

Dedicated to Alexei Navalny, and ending with a Russian spoken homage to the political figure, Democrazy has a political heart in the right place, but I can’t help but feel it doesn’t work as political theatre. Not to say that maskwork is too old-fashioned for politics – in my opinion, it is integral to the development of an actor — but when the masks represent simple dichotomies like Democracy / Tyrant, Justice / Injustice and Good / Bad then the play comes across as too simplisitic. 

There’s a version of this that could feel like Rhum + Clay’s Project Dictator, similarly curious about art made in dictatorships, which had form-bending and a genuinely reverent interrogation of clown tradition. Instead, art is (probably non-intentionally) represented as the final resting place of Haugh’s strange man, who after a political career standing up to Richard Tater is stripped of his passport and becomes a maskmaker Vanoni encounters. 

There’s also a version of this where the audience can be compelled by the clownishness of the duo that they get behind a tyrant, but here they are all too easily allowed to remain comfortable in their liberal orders. Democracy is always under threat from fascism – but to present a political piece in which this is the only threat is to disregard the machines of the 21st Century mining our data and colonising our minds. This too, is an element of contemporary fascism, not to be found here. This is a form of theatre which has such potential to provoke, and instead it teetered around ideas the entire room agreed with. 

Still, the physical work is accomplished, the masks are beautiful, the situation entertaining. It’s a light hour of work, but Action Theatre’s other show, The Italians in England, is probably my favourite side of the coin. 

Recommended Drink: Alcoholic – a Sex on the Beach. Or just drink a tropical smoothie if you’re not feeling degenerate.

You can catch Democrazy at Haldane Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall from August 9-15 at 11:00 (50mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.