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Festival Review: Summerhall

Michael Cox reviews Letters to Windsor House, Bubble Schmeisis, Adler & Gibb, Heads Up and Last Call.

Anyone who has lived at an address previously occupied by others can surely relate to the scenario presented by Sh!t Theatre. In Letters to Windsor House (****), Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit (company members and flat mates) are inundated by post addressed to previous occupants. They wonder who these people were and why they are getting the types of mail they are receiving, thus beginning a production that starts off as mere curiosity but spirals into something much larger.

Both Mothersole and Biscuit are terrific to watch. They are funny, cheeky and can hold a nice tune. They are also easy to empathise with when the production goes into more personal material.

What makes Letters work best, however, is that it ends up asking far more questions than it initially sets out to do. It begins with asking things many would ponder (who used to live here, what happened to them) but goes into much richer, darker territory, looking not only at the politics involved with housing and beautification schemes but also in what it means to belong in a community.

*

Nick Casenbaum is a personable performer--he's very good at making an audience feel at ease, and in his production Bubble Schmeisis (***), he is able to make his tales of Jewish heritage feel comforting and familiar.

Like any good family story, this one twists around tangents on childhood while telling the audience about going to a schvitz (a bath house) with his beloved grandfather. While chronicling his journey to and through the schvitz, and the anxiety he has in being naked before his grandfather and his peers, Casenbaum also speaks of teenage shenanigans, holidays and times when he was confronted with clashes of culture.

Underscored by live music (adding a wonderful ambiance), the production is consistently charming, even when it skirts serious issues. Casenbaum is an excellent host, and he seems to enjoy telling his stories as much as any audience surely must feel in listening to them.

*

It would be wonderful to declare Adler & Gibb (***) another Tim Crouch triumph. After all, Crouch is a frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, and his work is usually stellar. But this isn't.

The most frustrating thing about this latest production isn't that it's bad or a noble failure but is merely mediocre. There are great ideas here: a production that openly questions both academic and artistic interpretation of art, and also looks at how artists should be remembered when they are no longer with us.

But it's hard to care or engage with any of the characters the production supplies. Shallow and self-serving, the script barely justifies spending any time with them. What makes the time palpable is Crouch’s excellent staging, making this a production easy to admire even when it's all but impossible to like. The final ten minutes are actually quite good, but the time it takes to get to those final moments are mostly a slog.

*

Anyone familiar with Kieran Hurley’s previous work will probably recognise the set-up for his latest: a desk with some lights, a microphone and a sound system. And that's it. Hurley steps onto the stage, dressed in a suit and barefoot. He sits at the table and occasionally looks at a script while telling a story that features an ensemble of characters, all different but in a similar thematic crisis.

Heads Up (****) looks at a group of people whose lives as they know it are about to end. These ‘endings’ come in different forms of crisis, including financial crashes, career-ending choices, upcoming parenthood and romantic betrayal. Hurley interweaves these tales, sometimes in mid-sentence, and paints a dramatic tapestry.

His storytelling skills are enthralling here. He’s matured in his stage presence and gives a riveting account of these four people in turmoil. It's a rich piece that is wonderfully theatrical in its simplicity. Terrific stuff all around.

*

Last Call (***) promises to bring a graphic novel to life. The original book apparently contained a CD that allowed readers to enjoy a soundscape as they read the account of a teenage girl who decides to run away from home.

The production creates a live performance of this experience. Joris Caluwaerts provides the music, actress Sara Vertongen narrates and a slideshow projects the panels up onto a screen.

It all looks and sounds great. It's just a shame then that the story itself isn't much to sing about. It's hard to care about a young woman who by her own admission is a non-entity, but rather than acting as a tale of self-discovery she spends most of the time as a background character in scenes that are themselves dull. It might end with a slight triumph, but it comes with a price that seems unwarranted and even unnecessarily cruel.

All productions are on at Summerhall. Check website and/or programme for dates, times and prices.

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