Theatre review: MARA, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh

Maltese company The New Victorians present a graceful ensemble herstory of selected trailblazers of the 20thcentury, who left their mark on culture, education and politics.

MARA, Pleasance Dome (Venue 23)

MARA, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh * * *

Against a live backdrop of fragrant, floaty electro-acoustic pop, seven young actresses utilise tried and tested theatrical devices - movement, voiceover, multi-functional props – to portray the radical agitators of the women’s suffrage movement, including their leader Emmeline Pankhurst and the composer Ethel Smyth whose work was treated with derision by the establishment.

There is also ample inspirational fodder in the risk-taking courage of Dutch writer Corrie ten Boom, whose family hid Jewish refugees in their home during the Holocaust, and the remarkable achievements of the deaf-blind activist Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan.

MARA is a slickly choreographed hour which flits elegantly back and forth between its period subjects and is arguably a little too subtle in drawing out 21st-century parallels with the plight of Syrian refugees or the ongoing global drive for female emancipation through education.

Until 26 August

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