Bunny! – Summerhall ★★★★

For years, arts funding applications have demanded an impossible balancing act from artists. Be innovative, but commercially viable. Be personal, but universally accessible. Address social issues, but remain entertaining. Appeal to everyone, offend no-one, justify every penny. It is enough to leave even the most committed theatre-maker tied in knots. Craig Manson’s Bunny! takes that frustration and runs gloriously off the rails with it. Meet Bunny: a fourteen-stone cabaret performer with Broadway dreams and absolutely no patience for the competition. Armed with a microphone, a handful of show tunes and an expanding body count, Bunny decides the simplest route to artistic success is the systematic removal of everybody else pursuing it. Actors, companies, institutions and celebrities all find themselves in her sights as Manson constructs a blood-soaked satire about creative ambition and the increasingly absurd systems that govern contemporary arts culture. The premise is ridiculous. The…