Theatre review: #Instalove

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Anyone with an abject terror of audience participation should steer well clear of this interactive theatre piece from American writer-performer Catherine Duquette '“ which is a real shame as they'll be missing something uniquely entertaining.

theSpace on North Bridge (Venue 36)

***

Duquette introduces four women via brief monologues and invites the audience to vote for their favourite.

Although very distinct personalities, they seem to reflect facets of Duquette’s own personality – one is a theatre director, while another is a games designer – and at times this resembles a choice-based video game. Duquette is a gifted performer – using her body language and very animated face to convey each character before she even speaks. But it’s her rapport with the audience that makes this. Choosing her subjects well by interacting with everyone in a small group of 20 she then invites the most suitable candidates to interact with her characters and other audience members in a bid to find a “match” and it’s fascinating to watch some very willing audience members wrestle with emotionally intimate questions. The solo theatrical aspects to this work well but even if Duquette stripped them out she could probably sell this format to Channel 4

Until 26 August. Today 8:05pm.