From dead poets to mad mimes

WHAT better way to start a Fringe Festival where the overall theme seems to have become sex and its various guises, than with Nigel Miles-Thomas' horny Lord Byron? A lawyer instructed him in how to be a lord, and a serving girl instructed him - when he was 10 - in how to be a man, he informed the audience with a leering smile.

And through the 50 minutes of gripping monologue in which Miles-Thomas recounted details of Byron's adventurous sex life, he managed successfully to seduce the audience - with his frankness and his poetry recitals - while simultaneously persuading us that he was a complete rogue.

The sexuality of Homer was not viewed with great distaste by the 19th-century Greeks, he informed us, admitting that while he chased women with an ardour that verged on addiction, boys were 'the real thing'.

Perhaps it was first-night nerves, but the crib sheet placed conveniently behind a pillar was referred to more than once, which meant that the momentum of the piece was temporarily lost.

However, Miles-Thomas concealed his use of the paper prompter reasonably well by squinting at the column while slugging down more of the gin and sodas to which Byron attributed much of his creativity towards the end of his short life.

And as the poetic rogue, who could charm the pants off most people (except the poet Shelley whom he loved - unusually for Byron - unrequitedly), Miles Thomas in his silk dressing gown was coolly and seductively convincing.

Another first-night opener of the 95 Fringe Festival was the zany Umbilical Brothers 'sound effects' cabaret act from Sydney.