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Lost in Translation

 
Victor Black Review by Victor Black 4 Published: 28 Aug 2025 Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower Show Dates: 12 Aug 2025-24 Aug 2025

Lost in Translation is a simple-sounding show that just screams ‘Edinburgh Fringe’. The script of a classic movie is taken, cut down to 60 minutes, translated into other languages and back into English. A cast of performers from across the festival is then invited to come and read the script on stage without any preparation time. It’s a chef’s kiss of a concept, and with a wealth of capable performers available to them, should be a guaranteed riot every time.

Any comedian getting this much consistent laughter for a full hour would be looking at strong odds to sweep the awards

Today’s performance was of a sleeper hit from the 90s called Titanic, and starred five acts plus a regular host. The performers were Sophie Allison as Jack and Sarah Baber as Rose, with Amy Sinclair, Nathan Stavridis and Keiran Bullock in supporting roles.

The show is very enjoyable, with a lot of time and effort clearly going into the script – much more so than simply translating back and forth a few times. It’s well controlled for continuity and exploiting humorous understatements – such as referring to the ‘Ship of Dreams’ throughout as a ‘canoe’. I was curious about which languages had been used for translation at various points, but suspect a fair amount of creative license was taken in the writing than the premise suggests. Too many jokes just felt written rather than happened upon, and for me, this lost trust in the format, as one could never be sure what was a genuine golden nugget and which references were written under the pretext of the translation process.

One thing that was never in doubt, however, was that the audience was fully into it. There’s a lot of concentrating involved – a 60-minute scripted summary of a 200-minute movie is pretty intense, and yet almost every single line got laughter from the majority of the room. Any comedian getting this much consistent laughter for a full hour would be looking at strong odds to sweep the awards; I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything quite like it, especially as I wasn’t quite as into it as most.

The actors didn’t all aim to embody their characters, and the supporting roles were only used for about a quarter of the show. The audience, who could easily have been brought in with props such as ice cubes or cues to chip in one-liners, were reduced to just being invited to boo when Cal came on.

If you’re planning on seeing Lost in Translation in the future, you’ll definitely want to browse their film schedule in advance because having a good understanding of the movie they’re parodying is a prerequisite to enjoying the show, and they do a different one each night.

If this were performed in a small room without a supportive audience, it could be a challenging hour, but with a total amount of laughter from the crowd today that rivals anything I’ve ever heard before, it’s clear that this ship won’t be sinking for a while.

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The Blurb:

Your favourite movies translated badly. Each night, we take a different classic film script, run it through an online translator a dozen times and then read the results live on stage in character! The final twist is that the guest stars read the scripts on stage for the first time. To get the most enjoyment, we recommend you watch the film beforehand. Films are listed on https://tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk/