2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Miles Jupp review
Be warned: there is little legroom in the Gilded Balloon Teviot, so if you are one of the many tall cricketing enthusiasts who want to see this show, you might want to sit in the very front. Don't worry though, there is no frightening audience interaction here. There is just Miles Jupp, an affable man who got caught up in a bit of a dare with himself and ended up in India having an epiphany (and more besides) on the floor of an exclusive Mumbai hotel. It could happen to anyone who decides to blag their way into the England cricket team's press corps, but it's good that it happened to someone with such a gift for easy storytelling, and someone you could listen to forever on almost any subject.
Jupp is not totally hapless or clumsy or unwitting, he doesn't flap about completely at sea, but does just get lost enough and is just clueless enough to make him a sympathetic figure rather than a bit of a cheeky conman, and the story contains just enough of the mildest of mild peril to keep you hooked till the end.
Jupp also portrays the other characters in the story in an affectionate manner, even the ticket touts and the Indian cricket official who shouted at him. His script contains only a smattering of actual laugh-out-loud moments, but that's fine, because it's the elegance of the whole piece that keeps it moving along. There also isn't that much cricket to it, and in the best spirit of this type of show, the actual topic matters a lot less than the journey and the discoveries made along the way.
Miles Jupp: Fibber In The Heat (A Cricket Tale) listing