Shedinburgh’s one- off shows bring the immediacy of the Fringe to life online
These stripped- back productions allow the strength of the writing to show through, writes David Pollock
THEATRE
Quarter Life Crisis
Labels
On two stages in two theatres in two cities, small wooden performance spaces have been built to take the temporary place of the many varied theatrical areas which usually fill Edinburgh during August. Devised by producer Francesca Moody ( who brought us Phoebe Waller- Bridge’s original Fleabag in 2013 and last year’s Baby Reindeer), from an idea by Scottish theatre- maker and co- producer Gary Mcnair, the Shedinburgh Fringe Festival is an approximately once- a- day online broadcast with a rich vein of exclusive theatre and comedy.
One shed sits in the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh while the other is at London’s Soho Theatre. Each performance is accessed by a minimum £ 4 donation to its creator, while the live nature of seeing an artist on stage is emphasised by the fact that these shows are available once only, at the advertised broadcast times – there is no freeto- access future life online.
This format is an important statement about the value we might place on supposedly disposable, online broadcast theatre – although it means that unfortunately the works reviewed here are no longer available to view. Still, they may give you an idea of what to expect from a future bill which includes Sara Pascoe, Jack Rooke and Steve Coogan.
Written by Kieran Hurley – Mcnair’s co- writer on the Moodyproduced Square Go – Beats is a revival of Hurley’s breakthrough solo performance monologue, read script- in- hand by actor Lorn Macdonald ( who also appears in Hurley’s Traverse hit Mouthpiece,
adapted by Macdonald himself as Declan, for this month’s virtual Traverse programme).
Beats tells of 1990s Scots teen Johnno Mccreadie, whose initiation into the illicit rave scene comes amid the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill, and the overwhelming police clampdown on such events. This version is naturally shorn of much of the original’s power – Macdonald is seated with his script open before him, and there are no thundering soundsystem or darkened stage lights – but this brings the raw combined quality of the writing and the performance to the fore. The period politics of Beats are not its focus, rather the expression of the natural desire of youth to share experience in celebration, and music’s role in that. In Covid- 19 times, the pang of loss this brings is profound.
Midway through Shedinburgh’s run, two more already- existing pieces were broadcast back- toback, both of which brought downto- earth but never- more- urgent explorations of race in the UK.
Yolanda Mercy’s Quarter Life Crisis was seen at Underbelly in 2017, where it gathered good reviews; the reasons why are apparent from this edited- down version, as Mercy delivers a solo piece about the intricacies of millennial life in London, with her
character’s Nigerian heritage a constant in the background. Mercy’s storytelling is warm and involved throughout, and if we felt a little unsatisfied at its end, that’s only because this excerpted version left us wanting more.
Joe Sellman- Leava’s Labels won a Scotsman Fringe First on its arrival in Edinburgh in 2015, although unlike either of the above Shedinburgh shows – both of which would have worked equally as well presented as radio pieces – it feels more like a proper, physical piece of theatre in this context.
Sellman- Leava stands, he moves around, he applies name labels to the set and his own chest as the piece progresses – a gimmick which ends up working perfectly, drawing our attention firmly towards the uses and abuses of categorising people. At one point, subtly side- stepping the fact that audience interaction is the only part of the show he can’t do, he invites Moody onto the set to be his accomplice. The easy intimacy of his account of growing up mixedrace in England gives us a sometimes bitter taste of the theatrical experience we miss so much.
Daily, once- only Shedinburgh Fringe Festival performances are ongoing at www. shedinburgh. com until 5 September.