Review: Flâneurs, Summerhall, Summerhall

THE Bystander Effect states that the more people who witness an assault, the less likely any of them will intervene.

Spurred by an attack on her friend, Jenna Watt hopes to use this performance/lecture to create an army of flâneurs: urban explorers she believes can overcome the effect.

Watt is a warm storyteller but Flâneurs is full of well intentioned ideas that don’t translate to reality.

Her plan to reclaim scary areas of the city is a wonderful notion, but she doesn’t mention if it worked. She also repeatedly relates things back to herself, an attempt to give a human face to victims that can seem self-absorbed.

Flâneurs are dandies that float around the city, viewing misery as entertainment. Anyone that has ever stood on South Bridge, watching the drunks in the Cowgate below, will know that flâneurs are not good Samaritans nor bystanders. They are the audience.

Until Sunday