Will You Hold My Hand? is brought to you by two self-confessed ‘educators’ We are Goose; their style might be described as somewhere between Terry Deary and Rolf Harris. We are Goose take a romp back to the eighteenth century (costumed, of course) in an educational skit about the seminal surgeon, John Hunter. An intriguing biography is brought to life with scenes that rely heavily on song and projection. Graphically detailed accounts of body-boiling, songs about STDs and dropping the c-bomb made the show too gruesome for children; the ratio of jokes to information relayed was too low for an adult audience, looking for a laugh. A little wiser having left, but not that much merrier, it seemed that one could have just bought Wendy Moore’s 2010 book, ‘The Knife Man’ instead.
We are Goose are by no means bad performers; energetic with an outstanding musical (as well as lyrical ability) but their comedic delivery lets down what is actually a quite cleverly written and structured set. They rely a little too much on the life of Hunter being funny in and of itself, letting it speak for itself. However, the duo do add value to all this information in their musical numbers which are the primary source of the laughs in the set, as well as being just plain impressive.
Will You Hold My Hand? is a tenderly-told comedic celebration of a life too colourful not to be relayed in song, making it very difficult not to get swept along with the boyish enthusiasm of We are Goose. Rather than spend a night in the Wiki-hole researching this medical great, pop down to Cowgate to see the man that makes up the missing link between Jenner, Byron, Casanova, Irish giants, fishes with ears, and Photoshop beards.
