Theatre review: Simple Matters, Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14), Edinburgh

By KALLY APTER
Published on 07/08/2012 13:08

CONSIDERING how much time we spend talking, it’s amazing what we can say without words. This six-strong troupe from California open their mouths very little during this hour of mayhem, but we are left in no doubt as to what they are thinking.

Simple Matters

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14)

Rating: ***

The show focuses on the simple but essential things in life – going to the toilet, looking for a mate, earning money and making babies. But there’s nothing remotely simple about their inventive set – or the way they use it.

With two erection gags in the first ten minutes, and a skit about diarrhoea, subtlety is not on the agenda here. But the sheer physicality of the performers – including some impressive acrobatics – pulls them back from the precipice of banal slapstick.

Not all the set-pieces hit the spot, however, and it is actually the few, well-chosen words that provoke the biggest laughs; in particular, a flirtation between a male performer and female audience member.

• Until 26 August. Tomorrow, 1:30pm.