BigMouth

In a nutshell:
Blistering rhetoric / Toastmasters’ delight / Gobsmacking performance

Take 2,500 years of oratory, five microphones and one-man multilingual powerhouse Valentijn Dhaenens and you have the theatrical loop-de-loop that is BigMouth.

Juxtaposing fragments of world-famous speeches of the kind that started wars and revolutions, excited hearts and minds and made listeners tremble, protest and guffaw, this virtuoso solo work has a cast of full-on movers and shakers.

From Goebbels to General Patton, from Socrates to the bumbling Dubya, Dhaenens shapeshifts, croons and loops his way through history, examining racism, justice and human vulnerability as he goes. BigMouth exposes the biggest con of the talker’s trade – that the voices of good and evil are rhetorically indistinguishable, that talkers talk the same talk no matter the walk.

Whether you’re a history buff, a budding politician or you’ve just joined toastmasters, you’ll want to be lending us your ears for this sell-out hit of the Edinburgh Fringe.

Photograph: Maya Wilsens

Post-show talk: Wednesday 16 March