Goodbye Uncle Fudgey

My wife and I had the luck to see an excerpt from this play (an inadequate description) at Mervyn Stutter's compilation show. We were hooked and went to see Tom's amazing tour de force in full. You have to see it to fully appreciate the brilliance of its scope and depth.

Lindsay Anderson's IF meets Watch with Mother ..........

i loved every minute of that show- i laughed- i cried- and all together it was one of the most touching experiences to watch such a talented performer bloom. i wanted to stand and clap-
instead i wept with emotions. a hundred stars :)

Awww. We loved Uncle Fudgey! Rooting for the boy he was! Cheeky, energetic, rascally, rude, timely, terrifying and strangely touching. Also pretty hard to categorise but well worth an evening trip to Gilded Ballon at Teviot …
…. Despite the Escherian nightmare of finding The Lounge!

Give the lad a cuddle won’t you?!

This show blew me away. I was mesmerised from the moment I walked in the room (yes, even before everyone was sat down). He uses the space and a few props, not to mention only one actor, to maximum effect—flipping contexts and characters in a second and whirling from one emotion to the next. The entire show is anchored in emotion, which makes the chosen unsavoury moments deeply tense and meaningful. Audience interaction is on point yet respectful to guests. I randomly got this flyer outside the venue, briefly spoke to Tom, and decided to head in with no expectations. Very glad I did. 5/5 for sure, would pay to watch it again!

This one-man show is delivered with such playfulness, abandon, and sharp storytelling that a whole world of characters and motivations are built and destroyed in a packed hour. The story of a bolshy adult mutated from a timid boy abandoned to boarding school is engrossing, entertaining, and surprising. The audience is open and involved from the outset, as a childish young Fudgey fires a peashooter from under a duvet, and breaks down any hesitancy by bringing us all to closer seats so he can "play" - and play he does. With tight production and numerous changes of scene and costume, he hosts a carousel of personalities, switching with ease but minimal voicework - fittingly, most come from and sound like him, like a world refracted and full of himself. Unrelentingly energetic and moving, at such a pace, you can't help but be completely swept along.

I survived boarding school(just) so got to see my ‘education’ played out, exposing it all to its lack of humanity. Doesn't sound a barrel of fun but there’s a fine line between pain and laughter. This show navigates it with pitch perfect precision. As the tears fell(and they did a lot) I wasn’t always sure if It was because of the mad cap humour or the painful memories invoked.
Either way it was first class writing, superb acting and an hour that went by in the blink of an eye. So, so good!
And trust me you don’t have to have had the boarding school experience to enjoy the ride.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was 100% one of the best shows I’ve seen so far! The play text was so clever and absolutely comical, with a soulful meaningful ending which left me crying. The energy of the performance was thrilling and the detail of characteristics was incredible as he changed character. A clearly very talented actor! If you are looking for a show during this years fringe DO NOT MISS THIS CAPTIVATING PERFORMANCE!

This show was a random pick for me, and I'm very glad that I made it.

It provides a fun, but cutting, satire of toxic masculinity, & British class privilege, but manages to deliver it in an honest and considered way. It's brilliant.

I thoroughly enjoyed this show. It was fun, funny emotional and very entertaining. A random pick for me and a pleasant surprise. Absolutely would recommend

Goodbye Uncle Fudgey is about the completely fucked-up way that British educational institutions embed masculinity into boys at the expense of their emotions. From the flyer front, it would be easy to mistake this show as a light-hearted, amateurish pisstake of boarding school life — it’s anything but.

This show captures the essence of the private education system and the toxic masculinity that results with hilarious and heartbreaking honesty. The script is brutally direct at times, with little time for subtext, but this is absolutely a strength. It’s also incredibly well acted. In lesser hands, the shifts between clown and melodrama would be cringeworthy, but Tom Greaves is utterly compelling to watch (no wonder, as an alumnus of LAMDA and Ecole Philippe Gaulier, not that he mentions this in his promo copy). The puppetry is also better than shows I’ve seen by celebrated masters of the field.

As someone who could have been Fudgey but for the grace of God, I found Goodbye Uncle Fudgey earnest, entertaining, surprising and delightful — a perfect example of fringe theatre and the best thing I’ve seen at Edinburgh 2023 so far.

Absolutely fantastic. It achieves the very rare feat of being both hilarious and thought-provoking. Often it's so funny that you have to remind yourself that underneath it all, Greaves is discussing serious topics that deeply affect him. The crowd work proves how quick he is on his feet and solidifies him as a singular talent. Very much looking forward to seeing what he does next, because he should honestly be a star.