Anna Burnside reviews a production that highlights ‘important work’.
Tom Bailey prowls the stage as a cheer pheasant, then a gunmouth blackfin, as the audience takes its seats. We are allocated spirit animals for the duration. I am a beeping froglet.
Every species mentioned is endangered. The first phase of the show is a gently witty imitation of the doubtful cone and the polymorphic robber frog. That’s Bailey’s excuse to steal a packet of biscuits.
It’s sweet and funny, with strong charades energy.
Then the gear changes. Bailey, in a VR headset, becomes a Balinese tiger. Despite the Attenboroughesque voiceover, this is a game, and the stakes have got higher.
When the gear changes again, all playfulness has gone. Bailey dumps a box of bones on the stage, picks out a skull and drapes himself in a length of cloth printed with the names of endangered and extinct species.
And while he claims to be embodying his own spirit animal—the penitent mussel—the show becomes an educational travelogue with slides of Bailey’s epic 90-day trek from Eriskay to Oslo to perform the show at a Norwegian theatre festival.
Bailey and his company Mechanimal is doing important work here. The show would be even better with a section where the audience has to decide: endangered species or heavy metal band? From a purely enjoyment point of view, the tone jumps are very steep and would not work for younger viewers. There are precious few laughs on day 47 in the fjords.
Wild Thing performs at Summerhall (TechCube 0) at 13:30 until August 25, 2025 (no performance on the 19th).
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