Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: Lessons on Revolution | Across a Love Locked Bridge | Rat House + more

Lessons on Revolution ★★★★★

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 26 August 

Lessons on Revolution is a monument to Marshall Bloom (1944-66), the leftist radical and former president of the student union at the London School of Economics.

Bloom played a significant part in sit-ins and demonstrations protesting against the appointment of LSE’s director, Sir Walter Adams, in 1967; his leadership informed the most momentous student action of a generation.

Performers Sam and Gab take us expertly between the 1960s and the present day. We flit from land-locked Zimbabwe to London, from the lives of landlords to dreamers. We are told of the horrors that startled Bloom into opposition, and we delight in the types of progress that can only be invented in the dark, amongst like minds.

The play’s very structure shows how meeting the needs of others can itself be a radical act, in a world of commercial organisations and public bodies that operate in a constant state of self-interest.

The piece is deeply attuned to its audience. Our physical, psychological and intellectual appetites are anticipated and sated - gifts of digestive biscuits and orange squash quench the August heat, whilst heated debates present opportunities for participation, fostering direct action.

The pastel folders that sit in the centre of the stage are houses for bright ideas. From the record turning softly in the corner, comes a clarion call.

A projector reveals the inner workings of Sam and Gab’s research process, which is as illuminating as the exposed bulb that hangs above their heads. We are shown the window of their shared flat, deemed too small for safe habitation, and dangerous for its deficient utilities. Bloom’s outrage merges with their own, and with ours.

For one hour, we are suspended together in a politics of possibility. And for the hours that follow, we are invited to imagine a better world, apart. 

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

Across a Love Locked Bridge  ★★★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) Until 25 August

Paul Sellar is best known as a playwright but has been writing poetry for the past decade. Here, he presents a group of poems from an as-yet-unpublished anthology, woven together into four chronological sections.

There’s enough structure to suggest a narrative, while still allowing individual works room to breathe.

Sellar is good at observation, particularly of places and people. Many of the poems come out of the past, like the rough diamond lad he knew in London, or the face he (perhaps) recognises in Petersfield.

The longer works, in particular, build up a head of steam and start to feel more like spoken word pieces. He’s a strong reader, without being overstated, though he does have a tendency to over-explain the poem before he reads it.

There’s a pervading air of melancholy, but it’s only in the final section that he reveals the loss which has driven the show into being. The strongest image, a bridge over the Danube which buckled under the weight of love padlocks, is saved until the end.

There’s plenty to enjoy here, if you receive it for what it is: a poem sequence, not a piece of theatre.

Susan Mansfield

Where Are We Going With This?  ★★★

Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 24 August

You my well find yourself asking the very same question of yourself a few times during one of the many pauses in George Kinniburgh’s delicate two-hander. The pauses are a feature, not a bug, though, as this is very patiently and deliberately played.

What compels two strangers to share a bench at two in the morning, anyway? He (Thom Hallows) is dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts — which is odd as it’s January. As for Her (Meg DeBell), she’s just looking for a quiet place to sit, she’s taking a break; so is he, it turns out — from himself. 

This may sound absurd — what are two strangers going to talk about anyway? — but it does try hard to maintain a sense of reality. The characters’ conversation is hesitant, polite initially but then more curious as they test the boundaries of their relationship.

As carefully written as this is, it sinks or swims according to its actors and this benefits from two very assured performances. Both recent graduates of the Leeds Conservatoire, Hallows and DeBell bring a winning, hesitant chemistry to He and Her that brings this charming little show to life. It may not go anywhere terribly interesting but that is, perhaps, the point.

Rory Ford

Rat House ★★★

theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43) until 24 August

Brisk and breathlessly businesslike, Evie Cowen’s new comedy is a pointed satire of rotten boroughs played at a relentless pace.

Welcome to Hackton where there’s a worrying correlation between the new railway line and the steep decline in use of the public library. Four councillors of questionable competence are determined to sort it out, but can they put aside their long-standing resentments for long enough to do so?

The audience is invited to vote on the final decision at the end of the show but you’ll have to keep your wits about you because this goes by so fast it risks throwing away some of its gags in haste. The considerable upside, however, is that there’s always some new bit of business that demands your attention.

You don’t have to have any real interest in local government to appreciate this as it’s essentially a workplace sitcom, staffed by a swiftly and effectively sketched selection of archetypal acronym enthusiasts who have learned to talk fast because they think it makes them sound smart.

The cast tear through the material like seasoned pros with the energy levels of a hyperactive toddler and it has a sheen of sophisticated stupidity that’s hard to resist.

Rory Ford

Julie Flower: Grandma’s Shop  ★★★

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) Until 26 August

A piece of history is brought back to life in this solo show by actor, writer and improv artist Julie Flower. Her grandma, Hilda Flower, was the proprietor of a legendary second-hand clothes emporium in Sheffield for three decades, dresser and confidante to the city’s students, punks and anyone short of a bob or two. All her profits went on feeding stray cats.

Flower brings together her own memories of helping in the shop as a teenager in the 1980s with stories of customers, real and imagined, and her own delving into her grandma’s life to create a warm, engaging show. She could afford to have more confidence in that material and dial back a little on her high-energy delivery and determined audience participation: the story is strong enough.

Making excellent use of the music of the period, much of it from Sheffield bands, this is a fitting celebration of the extraordinary in the everyday. Flower wisely doesn’t say too much about Hilda herself, she is always just out of view, which makes her all the more real. Even if she never dressed Jarvis Cocker, it’s fun to imagine her doing so. 

Susan Mansfield

One More ★

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) until 26 August

This clunky Irish comedy has very few redeeming features. Written and directed by Colin O’Donnell, it follows four young Dubliners – Shaun, Jamie, Grace and Kayleigh – through their romantic trials and tribulations over the course a few days.

They meet in a bar, have a few drinks, get chips, then head home. A few days later, Grace and Shaun bump into each other at an improv class, and Jamie and Kayleigh meet on a tram.

Bizarre flashbacks fill in irrelevant details about their lives. The plot is paltry, the dialogue stilted, the performances clumsy, and the staging shoddy. One to avoid.

Fergus Morgan