LOVE SICK. To 20 August.

Edinburgh

LOVE SICK
by Charlotte Riley, Dan Ford and Alex Ferguson

Smirnoff Underbelly (Big Belly) 8pm-9pm No interval

TICKETS: 0870 745 3083 (9am-11pm)
www.smirnoffunderbelly.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 August

Humorous approach to serious matters performed with skill.There's a lot of clowning in this love story. And clowning's been done a lot on the Fringe. A lot of people think they can do clowning. Not many can, well. But this pair of performers know exactly what they are doing, and through words and physical action convey an intense relationship from birth to death. Their story gains cohesion through a simple, if unlikely device which they succeed in giving a concrete reality.

Lovers rarely show much sense. But they live in a world of heightened senses. If love is blind, Martha is at least short-sighted. It's only when she mounts her specs over her nose she falls truly, madly, deeply across a not too crowded restaurant for Malcolm. The feeling's mutual; mandible-dropping, menu-dropping passion.

Alas, as they set-up home together in a bijou (ie cramped) apartment, he finds her odour odious. Only when his sense of smell goes does the problem cease; by when he's insensitive to her needs. So the flower he brings her is like a pollen-cloud to a hay-fever sufferer, but he takes ages to work out what's wrong.

By the end he's off, the cruelty of parting expressed as he begins by taking nothing then leaves their former home denuded, Martha ending up among the rubbish. For she's been unassertive, too lost in love to complain or demand.

Through skilfully performed, inventive comic action Love Sick, a title which has its every implication acted out and a thoughtful approach to its subject, makes for a delightful hour with a thoughtful aftertaste.

Malcolm: Dan Ford
Martha: Charlotte Riley

Director: Alex Ferguson

2005-08-16 18:22:43