BANK OF SCOTLAND INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S THEATRE FESTIVAL 2004.

EMILY'S HOUSE
by Isabel Wright

Visible Fictions at The Garage, Edinburgh To 30 May
Runs 50 min No interval

A great stage B-movie, though with rather quick character transitions.Visible Fictions has been touring Isabel Wright's play for 9+ throughout May; ironically, its final, 'family' performance in the Festival had only a token child or two huddled on the front row. No doubt in a school, or even a theatre filled with young people, the opening, with its snappy 'win-'em-over' brevity and speed would have seemed less contrived.

What proceeds is an increasingly involving story of two young people, Ben and Gill, forced into the same house when his dad and her mum marry. There's something strange up the chimney, and danger in the attic, summoning Ben, who finds himself blamed for various happenings around the house.

It all seems connected with a previous occupant, young Emily, who is as upset as Gill, fondling her departed dad's overcoat. The story has domestic overtones of The Ghost Train and is ingenious. Wright and director Kate Brailsford just about play fair with the audience, though to accept the final outcome we need to accept some things we've seen being events as understood by one or other of the characters.

(Don't object that young audiences don't think of these things - by 9+ they're more critical than many adults. I always sit near the one who leads the rational objections, and doubtless would have done so here, had there been any children to hand).

As a ghost story, it's increasingly gripping, helped by actors physicalising the mysterious attic on the abstract set, by lighting and - especially - the aural mix of moody recorded music and vocalised sounds.

But the relationships develop jumpily, without particular motivation - the softening of the children towards each other and Gill's vital decision to face her new world, in particular. So the piece has more impact as imaginative theatrical narrative than the study in character which might have gone alongside to make it an outstanding piece.

The three actors are all strong, giving alert, economical performances. But somehow the neutral costumes and clean playing-style adds to a sense of anonymity that weighs the play more towards story than character.

Still, a full, young house might have given quite a different feel.

2004-05-30 21:48:33