Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre reviews: A Funeral For My Friend Who Is Still Alive | Meet Me By The Stranger | Secret Storytellers | The Booth | Boudica | Attendants | Adrift

An absurd, sweet, and bitterly painful new play by a duo from Hong Kong is a highlight at theSpace, says Katie Hawthorne

THEATRE

A Funeral for My Friend Who Is Still Alive ****

theSpace @ Niddry Street (Venue 9) until 12 August

Kasen Tsui in A Funeral For My Friend Who Is Still Alive

Actor Kasen Tsui is wide-eyed in shock as the audience take their seats. The lights dim, and we learn that she is imagining how it would feel to receive an invitation to one’s own funeral: “What the f***?!”

Over the course of A Funeral for My Friend Who Is Still Alive, we learn that Tsui’s dear friend left their shared home city suddenly, secretively, and out of necessity, following his involvement as an activist in what she discreetly labels “a social movement”. She never got to say a proper goodbye, and so she gleefully describes this performance as “emotional blackmail”… and the only way she can pay tribute to such a formative friendship.

Fitting for an elegy, this concise, composed show is often so quiet that the only audible sound is a faint electrical buzz from somewhere up in the rigging. But Tsui is a gifted physical performer, and she can also conjure noisy, teeming, dangerous life out of a bare stage. She paints him so vividly that it feels as if her goofy, tall, flip-flop-wearing friend is about to walk out and join her under the lights. Yet every time she pauses for a slow, thoughtful drag of an imaginary cigarette, embodying for a moment their shared habit, you can feel the grief set in.

Performed by Tsui, and co-written with producer and director Cathy Lam, both from Hong Kong, A Funeral is absurd, sweet, and bitterly painful. Comic relief masks the trauma of running from teargas, while a night spent camping on the ghostly campus of an unpopulated university becomes a legacy of their friendship; a freeing memory, and a monument to an impossible future. And all the while, the spectre of their shared metropolis looms large, coming into focus only in the production’s final goodbye.Katie Hawthorne

THEATRE

Meet Me by The Stranger **

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until 12 August

In Meet Me by The Stranger, the lives of three couples are threaded, then tangled, together. With a focus on queer love, relationship-making, and relationship-breaking, ‘The Stranger’- a statue that gives the play its name, imagined here as a dressmaker's mannequin - becomes a site of rupture, renewal, and refuge. The cast of six take turns to talk to and about one another, creating a carousel of scenes. Moments of light comedy soften the otherwise sombre mood of the piece, and while it strays into stereotype at times, it remains serious-minded, especially in its handling of domestic abuse and divorce.

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

THEATRE

Secret Storytellers **

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until 12 August

Armed with the myth of Persephone, and a trove of costumes and props, Wren (played by writer and director Emma King-Farlow) and Ash (Amy Floyd) rebel against Ravensnest, an authoritarian state that has sanctioned storytelling. Reminiscent of pantomime, Secret Storytellers is promising, with glimmerings of comedic potential. However, the show is torn between its Orwellian frame and the myth of its choosing, and as such demands a more targeted approach. It is also unclear who this show is for, though it is sure to endear itself to younger audiences, and is to be recommended to families attending the Fringe this year.

Josephine Balfour-Oatts

THEATRE

The Booth ***

Bedlam Theatre (Venue 49) until 13 August

Quiet! We’re about to watch a live transmission of a radio play called The Dream House, and three actors are poring over their scripts. There’s fed-up Bea (Georgia Gabrielides) due to play posh and basically characterless wife Judith; Zak (Louis Whitell) who is insufferably pretentious both in and out of character as even posher husband Peter; and Jo (Finn Vogels) who takes a desperately Method approach to Digby, a caricature of a Yorkshire groundskeeper. Stage left is perfectionist foley artist Sue (Josie Embleton, with an impeccable poker-face), being pestered by irrepressible ‘Chief of Welfare’ Alan (Joseph Stramm). Little wonder that pompous director Jay (Ted Ackery) is pacing in despair.

Produced by Bedlam’s own Edinburgh University Theatre Company, The Booth is a potent mix of well-drawn comic characters; once ‘on-air’, disaster feels deliciously inevitable. The projection of the radio play’s script to the stage’s backdrop is a smart yet underused device, and excellent detailing – such as Alan whispering apologies to the audience – make for a genuinely funny hour. Written and directed by Otis Kelly, there is brilliant potential between the cast’s friction and the kitschy horror of The Dream House, but such a powerful set-up deserves a more explosive pay-off.Katie Hawthorne

THEATRE

Boudica **

Greenside @ Infirmary Street (Venue 236) until 12 August

The story of Boudica, warrior queen of the old English Iceni tribe, is recast as a contemporary gangster thriller with a hint of The Sopranos, as Boudica and her daughters attempt to reclaim the inheritance of her late criminal husband from the male business partner who has usurped it through trickery and deceit. Produced by the University of St Andrews’ Mermaids Performing Arts Fund, it’s naturally DIY, student-level fare, and Sam Mason’s play goes to all the least unexpected places as it shifts towards eventual tragedy. Yet Emily Speed directs crisp, involving performers out of her actors.

David Pollock

THEATRE

Adrift **

theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until 12 August

You certainly can’t fault the atmosphere in this - allegedly - semi-autobiographical collection of maritime horror stories written and performed by Leon Witcomb. The sound design is top-notch with constant creaking timbers and stormy waves occasionally punctuated by scarifying screams. Lost and alone at sea, Witcomb essays a number of parts documenting what became of his missing crew. Witcomb has fun with his crew-mates’ accents but their watery fates are hardly original or that diverting and you don’t have to be an experienced seaman - or particularly superstitious - to know that shooting a seagull with your last flare is a very poor decision.Rory Ford

THEATRE

Attendants **

theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) until 12 August

As moderately diverting and sensibly short as this slice of observational comedy involving three air stewardesses occasionally is, it doesn't actually take you anywhere of particular interest. Inspired by the works of John Godber (Bouncers) it's a collection of vignettes set aboard an Applesby Airlines flight to Ibiza. It's nicely performed by the three young performers although their characterisations of the passengers, pilots and attendants does tend to err a little on the broad side. It's pleasant - and clearly well-rehearsed - rather than genuinely funny and lands with a bit of a bump, but the confident actors show promise.Rory Ford