Anna Burnside reviews a production with ‘a smart conceit’.
Lloyd Dobler, the character played by John Cusack in the 1989 teen romance Say Anything, is now a podcaster interested in Eastern religions.
Of course he is.
This second life comes courtesy of writer-performer Dennis Trainor Jr who has thrown the character forward and come up with a Californian yoga teacher who goes on Occupy Wall Street marches.
This Lloyd is still a bit hung up on Diane Court, his high school sweetheart. She now works for a tech monster and has invited him to be the token counter-culture voice at a top-level symposium.
This is a smart conceit, but it does depend on the audience remembering a lot about Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut. Or knowing of its existence in the first place.
Under Guy Masterson’s tight direction, Trainor zigzags between meditations, reminiscences and righteous anger. The pace changes are well managed, sometimes with the help of a tinging bell. He covers a lot of ground - his parents, Fallujah, AI.
Did I mention there’s a Woody Guthrie singalong at the end?
This show would work better if Lloyd Dobler had a bigger footprint in the culture. But it’s still the best exploration of the connections between Daoism and anti-Trump rage available in Edinburgh this August.
The Tao of Lloyd performs at Assembly Rooms (Drawing Room) at 12:25 (60 minutes) until 30 August 2026 (not 20th). For further details, go to the Fringe website.
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