Edinburgh Fringe Theatre reviews: Heartbreak Hotel | Illuminate the Darkness | Sour Candi | Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party | A Balloon Will Pop at Some Point During This Play | Knowledge from the Future

Heratbreak Hotel | Rebecca McMillan

THEATRE

Heartbreak Hotel ★★★★

Summerhall - Old Lab (Venue 26) until 26 August

I defy even the coldest cynics to resist the aching charm of this unapologetically tender two hander. Episodes of a fracturing relationship gently implode with deadpan but poignant earnestness. There is something universal about the heartbreak they disentangle: It’s the kind that’s coiled into the core of every acoustic breakup song, every googly eyed cinematic romance. It hurts all the same.

But that’s only half of it. Kiwi actress Karin McCracken intersperses each episode with monologues sketching the anatomy of breakups, what happens to our blood, our brains, under the melancholic stress of heartbreak.

You soon realise it masks a quiet scream for help. An impossible all-too-human attempt to quantify the qualitative. Heartbreak is a condition without a cure. All you can do is sit back and let it sink its icy teeth into every aspect of your life. How to take the next step when you are always looking back and longing for something that will never be? 

Heartbreak Hotel peels itself back layer by layer. Soon we are face to face with the melancholic heart beating beneath, the pulse of which we could detect pumping warmth from the outset.

McCracken’s live synth soundtrack is charmingly idiosyncratic in a Wes Anderson twee sort of way, but it hijacks your nervous system and fast tracks its way into your soul. In keeping with the electronica, a wall of LED lights flashes deliriously behind her. At times it’s claustrophobic, trapping her in overpowering plush pink, four walls of inescapable longing enclosing in. At times it offers liberation, dotted flickers of silver simulate an endless night sky and its hope of healing. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s a very long tunnel.

Fellow Kiwi Simon Leary plays the ex-lover opposite McCracken with assured sparkle. Pain simmers under the surface of their kookiness. You’ll want to give everyone a hug as soon as it ends.

Alexander Cohen

THEATRE

Illuminate the Darkness ★★★

Summerhall, Red Lecture Theatre (Venue 26) until 11 August

Created by Bea Conner-Pohl, Illuminate the Darkness explores the entanglement of racism and sexism in America. Dedicated to the practices of empathy and non-judgement, the piece moves gently between the past and the present day, depicting dizzying displays of racial and gender bias, and discussing the rudiments of privilege - particularly, how one’s physical presentation determines one’s perception and reception by others.

Slideshows touching on historical female figures (their contributions to feminist thinking and political progress having been struck from the archive, wrongly reattributed to their male counterparts, or otherwise estranged from common knowledge) are interleaved with video interviews with modern women who represent a range of ethnicities and cultures. By turns, each interviewee unpacks and unpicks their personal experiences of ‘microaggressions’ - a term now widely used to describe indirect or subtle discriminatory behaviour.

While thought-provoking, participatory elements could be more challenging. Currently, Q&A-style exercises invite audiences to consider how these women resolved or reckoned with the events surrounding their experiences of discrimination. But our choices have no bearing on the action, and a greater sense of complicity would simulate our senses of individual and collective

responsibility as we engage with this very nuanced, deeply-felt discourse.

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

THEATRE

Sour Candi ★★

Just the Tonic at The Mash House - Just the Cask Room (Venue 288) until 11 August

You can’t help feeling like you’ve seen this one woman show before: acidic humour skewering the labyrinthine hellscape of modern dating, messy sex, unapologetic female lust, and how all men are either dunderheads or dicks on legs.

The heartfelt but somewhere predictable bitterness soon emerges. It morphs into a story about breaking free from the choking toxicity of an abusive boyfriend. Narrative undercurrents celebrate female solidarity.

Don’t get me wrong, this is important stuff to explore, and whilst on paper it ought to be fine to revisit these conversations on stage, Sour Candi doesn’t bring enough uniqueness to the table to justify itself. Luckily Danielle Scott’s plucky performance keeps it buoyant.

Alexander Cohen

THEATRE

Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party ★★★

The Space Triplex (Venue 38) until 10 August

As offbeat as its title suggests, Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party tackles the issue of nuclear waste through the unusual lens of queer clubbing. In this creative solo show, the two work together surprisingly well.

Set in a queer rave, Deeptime takes place in a future century where nuclear radiation means people can only go out partying once a year. Soon, quips about poppers and polyamory give way to unexpected depth, as the show attempts to answer the question of what we owe to future generations.

Deeptime Atomic Waste Pleasure Party is an ambitious piece of theatre: immersed in strobing neon lights and pulsing techno music, writer and performer Jake Mace leads audiences on an expansive journey. They prove themselves to be an engrossing storyteller, despite a few moments of awkwardness and fumbled lines. Clever projection and sound design by Callie O’Brien also help to give the show a distinctive world of its own.

Mace’s writing demonstrates skill and originality; it’s weakened only by some clunky exposition and a few unnecessary moments of direct address. It may be a little rough around the edges, but what company Elastic Fantastic have set out to do here is genuinely exciting – this is a concept with outstanding potential.

Katie Kirkpatrick

THEATRE

A Balloon Will Pop at Some Point During This Play ★★

Paradise in the Vault (Venue 29) until 10 August

Part stand-up, part monologue, part science lecture; this frequently frustrating presentation is very technically accomplished but only occasionally entertaining. It’s a one-man existential crisis from actor-writer Andrew Macmillan that tries to fathom the unfathomable. Macmillan grapples with the vastness of the universe — particularly the 95% of it that we know nothing about — so it’s little surprise that this is ultimately unedifying.

Macmillan, however, is a likeable, gifted performer that does try to present abstract concepts in a semi-digestible manner. Some of it works but it’s telling that it’s at it’s probably most amusing when he’s compelled to depart from his dense script and go off book. You can’t fail to appreciate the obvious effort but do wish that there wasn’t quite so much of it.

Rory Ford

THEATRE

Knowledge from the Future ★★

Paradise in The Vault (Venue 29) until 10 August

A young Taiwanese woman, Jen (Jen Ting), faces major life decisions which are further complicated by her new-found psychic abilities. The one-woman show explores self-discovery and the complexities of inner and outer voices vying for attention, but it suffers from a lack of focus and clarity. Ting's character transformations, such as the food-loving boyfriend and tarot card character, show promise, yet the monologues, their connections and the transitions do not feel fully cohesive or smooth. Despite mystical lighting and atmospheric effects that complement the exploration of Taiwanese culture, folk beliefs and spirituality, the confused storyline detracts from the overall impact. More defined intentions and clearer characterisations would enhance this ambitious production and help the fascinating themes resonate effectively.

Suzanne O'Brien