Theatre review: Things I Never Told You, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh

The Things I Never Told You, Assembly Rooms (Venue 20)

Last year, Dutch writer-performer Tim Honnef (or Jonas Muller - we think they’re the same person) was forced to cancel his Fringe show after a few days due to illness.

Things I Never Told You, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh * * *

That much is true. Probably. But Honnef is one of the most adept on the Fringe when it comes to the increasingly popular game of keeping the audience guessing.

This show - ostensibly the story of what happened in the intervening year, about his illness, recovery, and a lonely neighbour who leaves him a box of treasured possessions - could be any mix of truth or fiction. Honnef - who seems to be reading his script, rather shakily at that (but there might be a reason for this as well) - insists it’s all true, and keeps checking back in with us to see if we still believe him.

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This relentless game-playing is either thrillingly postmodern or deeply frustrating. However, the idea of a cache of books, albums and videos none of which seem ever to have existed takes a Borgesian grip on the imagination. As twist follows twist, one has to admit that even if it’s all a shaggy dog story, it’s a damn fine one.

Until 25 August

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