As if against such technological exuberance, some Fringe performers are consciously stripping back. Hugh Hughes (pictured), the "emerging Welsh artist" and glorious creation of the Hoipolloi company's supremo Shôn Dale-Jones, parodied multimedia work in his first two shows in previous Fringe years by using jerry-built arrays of props and technology such as old- style classroom overhead projectors. For 360 at the Pleasance Courtyard, though, the stage is bare even of his usual collaborators and "friends". This is Hughes seeing whether his phenomenal bonhomie can sustain a story without material support.
This piece about friendship and basically being a bit daft begins outside the theatre with Hughes greeting the queuing audience; in the theatre itself he introduces us to one another, then later also bids us farewell at the door. If Hughes sat down next to you on a bus you would begin by slightly recoiling as your internal nutter-alert went off, but would, by the end, find it one of the most magical journeys you had ever taken. ★★★★☆