Theatre review: Misfit Warrior, theSpace on North Bridge, Edinburgh

Live from a tiny room at the top of the Hilton Hotel, this piece of electro synth storytelling, charting writer and performer Stuart Saint's inspirational real-life story of living with HIV and fighting cancer to be here today in a full peacock feather headdress, is a fabulous fringe anomaly that jars brilliantly with the calm, corporate blandness of its venue.

Misfit Warrior, theSpace on the North Bridge (Venue 36)

Misfit Warrior, theSpace on North Bridge, Edinburgh * * *

'A rebel story of a warrior,' it would benefit from on an onstage synthesiser, rather than pre-recorded one, but has a low-key aesthetic paired with high-octane energy and a Mad Max meets melting New Romantics style, which Saint and his two co-performers effectively use to stick two fingers up at the stigma of being HIV-positive.

As we travel back through Saint's life, the songs are stronger than more melodramatic disputes between him and his partner, with two of the three performers continually swapping roles – perhaps intended to illustrate that we can all be both a 'misfit' and a 'warrior' at times. This theme could be explored more, but an improvised finale in which our softly spoken host thanks us for helping to keep him alive shatters the divide between audience and show, fact and fiction, in the way the Fringe so often and so wonderfully allows to happen like nowhere else.

Until 24 August

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