FISH STORY. To 28 August.

Edinburgh

FISH STORY
by Rob Evans and People Can Run

Pleasance Two To 28 August 2006
Daily 7pm
Runs 1hr 5min No interval

TICKETS: 0131 556 6550
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 August

Fishy tale made for Fringe performance.
People Can Run's show is the kind of thing made for a classy venue on the Edinburgh Fringe. It's neatly performed physically (these people really can run, virtually on the spot while giving the sense of speed and fallings behind). It has an overall logic and, at just over an hour, doesn't require too much in way of developing, overarching structure: the length can just about be maintained by a series of incidents.

Yet, the slice of theatrical skill it reveals and the fanciful story don't carry conviction by themselves, throwing responsibility for enjoyment on the immediacy of each incident as a trio of people leave the suddenly-destroyed house where they've holed-up for ages against a mysterious enemy (which seems to be anything that might be feared in life) to search out their leader, the big Fish.

Either I'm demanding more than the piece has to give, or it's way too subtle for me to take in at a single viewing. At first these people seem alien to life on earth, knowing motor-vehicles only as 'chokebeasts' and not understanding what a road sign is. Later, these problems have somehow evaporated, and in a final scene the trio meet up in a bar, as socially adjusted as can be expected.

They're in more conventional clothing then, rather than the upside-down jumper Ian originally sported, and such other make-do wear as the others had. It all adds up to theatrical inventiveness, but despite the involvement of playwright Rob Evans, not to dramatic consistency.

And the incidents are not involving, funny or imaginative enough to hold attention in themselves for this length of time. Curate's egg good, but too often leaving the sense of performers indulging temselves, with skill, but also in the mistaken belief that because they've devised something, it's going to hold an audience's interest.

Ian: Kieran Fay
Maria: Sophie Fletcher
Tim: Ben Lewis

Designer/Costume: Polly Lawrence
Lighting:/Sound/Music: Elena Pena

2006-08-16 12:33:09