Bully, written and performed by Richard Fry, Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich, May 31Fry's tour de force is a talking head which tells the story of a young man caught up in a cycle of male violence.

David Green

Bully, written and performed by Richard Fry, Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich, May 31

Fry's tour de force is a talking head which tells the story of a young man caught up in a cycle of male violence.

Bullied by his father and, later, by his adored brother and gay lover, he ends up on a murder charge.

The story is very successfully told - using wit and pathos - in a style of verse which could easily fit in the category of rap. Sometimes the rhyming is emphasised, at other times under-stated.

Using a space furnished with only a single chair, Fry manages to hold the audience for an hour with a powerful tale of innocence seemingly corrupted by a combination of experience and heredity.

David Green