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Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Palimpsest

What About the Woo Productions

Genre: Comedy, New Writing, Theatre

Venue: Gilded Balloon Teviot - Balcony

Festival:


Low Down

Two people meet across a crowded bar. She is just in from an audition; he has just lost a gig. So far, so apart. She sees him and sees him as someone to be avoided. He sees her and sees her as someone to be avoided, except… There follows, awkward drinks, lost umbrellas, pretentious coffee, the importance of apostrophes and the beginning of something… Until she tires of him talking when she does, interrupts him, breaks every wall within hearing distance and they are in our show, wondering who they are, why they got there and how to avoid the black void outside, and things get really interesting.

Review

I found this inventive, creative and a joy. It was already working before the swap from rom com to meta. The script manages to provide Jess with enough sarcasm and Jim with sufficient awkwardness to make you root for one outcome and be invested in seeing if that works.
Once we went meta and it was all about who are we and what are we doing, it continued to maintain that level of interest until the bitchiness became a little samey. There was a dip once we started to see them trying to get out, which was rescued by their inclusion into the plot of the technician, Steve. Who isn’t Steve. But they are not Jess or Jim either.
It was efficiently directed, and the intimate space gave us the right amount of atmosphere that once we got out and “away from the script” it worked. The audience interaction was good and maintaining the connection with them was well established, thought through and effective.
Theatre arts were well employed, and the right attention given to them – the pomelo is now my fruit of choice for the Fringe.
But if they were of the right level and intimacy for this venue then a word, if you please about audio bleed. We are all well aware of the cramped nature of theatre spaces at the Fringe. It is inevitable that next door there shall be a bit of noise that will come through. The dull thunder of audience reaction is a background with which we can all put up. But when I can hear next door’s audience applaud indistinctly but can distinctly hear the chopping and banter of next door’s act so clearly that I feel like I am having an out of body experience then something is simply not right. I have no idea what the show is next door but at a tender moment in the show I am watching to hear amplified chopping is not just annoying. It spoils the experience for the audience. I am fortunate. I don’t pay for the privilege. Palimpsest was quite full – somebody somewhere has shelled out for THIS show and did not take the buy one get one free offer that was not on sale, to include next door’s.
It’s a pity because I really liked this and thought it had plenty of really interesting things to say. Aside from a dip in around 3/s of the way through, it reminded me that coming to the Fringe is about seeing something new and challenging and not always in an issue based manner. This was not issue based drama, except as an issue for the form of drama itself. And that is an indulgence well worth the ticket price. As long as you can hear it.

Published