Musical review: 1,000 Suns, theSpace on North Bridge (Venue 36), Edinburgh

By ROGER COX
Published on 11/08/2012 18:21

WELCOME to Radiation Springs, a town at the bottom of a giant crater in the country formerly known as America, where the survivors of a nuclear war shelter from the fallout that still contaminates the world above.

1,000 Suns

theSpace on North Bridge (Venue 36)

Star rating: * * *

Regular broadcasts from the community’s patriarch, Father John, emphasise the importance of hard work and family, and are laced with cheery reminders that, outside the crater, there’s nothing but “desert and death”.

Faced with such a stifling situation, it’s hardly any wonder that the town’s teens – “the malnourished lost boys of the crater” as one character describes them – dream of escape. All that stands in their way is fear of the unknown, Father John’s sinister police force, and the myriad complications thrown up by their own rampaging hormones.

This production may be a bit ragged around the edges, but there’s no doubting the passion of the young cast, who bulldoze through the sillier plot twists with utter conviction and sing as if their lives depended on it.

And expect to hear more from Kirsten Obank in the future. As radiation-poisoned Hope, singing about how she’ll die without a kiss, she’s about 1,000 times sadder than any tragic opera heroine.

• Until today, 7:35pm.