Theatre review: The Ties That Bind

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Paul works as a studio sound engineer but when he accidentally wipes the recordings of a big name artist it becomes apparent something is amiss with his memory.

Whitespace 76 (Venue 375)

**

Early onset dementia is diagnosed and the rage, confusion and isolation of the illness are evoked in scenes between Paul and his well-meaning sister Ali, who busies herself with being busy.

There are a couple of nice touches to this Skimstone Arts production – dementia test questions interspersed with questions from Paul’s weekly pop quiz, the tangle of Ali’s wool equating to Paul’s disordered thoughts, some hazy projections on the stark white walls of this gallery space and an opportunity for discussion and reflection at the end – but unlike the unpredictability of dementia, this naturalistic two-hander travels where you might expect it to.

Until 23 August. Today 3:20pm.