[VYholden]

I'm quoting this from the Arts Diary in today's "Scotsman", and it's really quite hilarious, which is not what the author intended. The play is to be performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe:

"The comedy section of the Fringe programme carries the following entry for the Gilded Balloon show, Hour of the Lynx.

"A young man in a mental institution has killed again. Two women, a psychiatrist and a priest, come to his cell to discuss how to proceed. The discussion will change all their lives."

Struggling to find this funny? You're not alone. The play - by the chronically pessimistic Swedish playwright Per Olov Enquist - is set in a psychiatric unit in northern Sweden, and is supposed to be deeply serious.

The show was a last-minute inclusion in the Gilded Balloon line-up, staffers say, and the only listings open in the pages of the Fringe programme were in the comedy section - better than none at all, they reasoned."

As they say, any publicity is better than none.

One of the show's stars, Dillie Keane, is not laughing, however. Funnily enough [excuse pun!] she is best known as a comedienne, but is trying to gain some street-cred as a serious actor:

"I lived in Sweden for two months but never laughed once," says Keane. "Hour of the Lynx is a deeply philosophical, metaphysical, psychological drama. It's got fewer laughs than Miss Julie mixed with Samuel Beckett. It is so not funny. It's about a psychopath who believes that his cat is God. I will be very sad for people who've spent their money hoping to bust their guts. We might hear the tipping of seats."

Harry