Critics’ choice - Gerald Berkowitz

Who are you?

London-based theatre critic, former academic, and unabashed fan of the festival and fringe for 35 years.

What is your favourite type of show?

A new play that, even if not wholly successful, tells me I’m in the presence of a real writer.

What are you looking forward to?

The whole mad experience, much larger than the sum of its parts, of seeing three or four shows a day.

What are you least looking forward to?

That moment somewhere in the second week of the marathon, when I hit a wall and begin wailing: “How many more shows do I have to review before they’ll let me go home?”

What is your best piece of advice for visitors?

Immerse yourself. Drown yourself.

This experience is unique in the whole world, and there’s no point in doing it half-heartedly.

Gerald’s top five shows

• Candide (Usher Hall). The opening event of the International Festival is a concert performance of Leonard Bernstein’s glorious score, with all the dull plot bits left out.
• Damascus (Traverse). With his adaptation of The Bacchae in the International Festival and this new play at the Traverse, David Greig is the playwright of the year.
• Adolf (Assembly Universal Arts, Freemason’s Hall). The fact that many of us have seen it before shouldn’t stop us from sending others to Pip Utton’s chilling demonstration that Hitler is not ancient history.
• Flanders & Swann (Pleasance Courtyard). A tribute to the godfathers of politely satiric musical cabaret. All together, “Mud, mud, glorious mud!”.
• And someone should mention that our Stage colleague Nick Awde has two plays at this year’s fringe. Unnatural Acts (Gilded Balloon Teviot), written with Chris Bartlett, is a romantic comedy, and Blood Confession (Assembly@Hill Street) a police procedural thriller.