Edinburgh Fringe 2018
Roxy Likes Cats
MakeSpace Productions
Genre: Drama, New Writing, One Person Show, Solo Performance, Theatre
Venue: Greenside at Royal Terrace
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Roxy has travelled home. There she has a door through which she is due to go and see what emptiness there may be inside as she has lost someone very close to her. She talks us through her emotional journey to this point with Schrodinger’s Cat thrown in to explain her reluctance to go through a door where for that moment that person may be alive in her thoughts and dead behind that door at the same time.
Review
Roisin Fahey is an engaging stage presence and one who has the charm to take you through her difficult time without scaring you off. It is an affecting tale which could do with being a little more dramatic a little earlier on and we do tend to meander a little as the set up is established.
The script, by the time we find out who has died is hung together thanks to Fahey’s performance and though there are quite a few nice lines and observations which make a great deal of sense, it needs to get to the essence of it quicker. The structure doesn’t quite achieve a conformity though the set piece at the end managed to hit quite a few high notes with Fahey being able to deliver because Jack Michael Stacey’s script was more than decent by that time.
The concept is one that has plenty to commend it, but it does require more fluency in its delivery. The concept of going back, the shadow of the door hanging, literally, over you is a very good one and the mood and atmosphere of the theatre arts handled it very well.
For example, Schrodinger’s cat is odd enough to be understandable but there needs to be more emotional pull for Fahey to be able to keep us attentive and won over.
It chimes with Jane Christie’s direction. Ponderous at the beginning with a need to make more of Fahey’s presence there is just not enough drama upon which to hang Roxy’s hat. This is poignantly handled well towards the end where the grace of the final few moments are managed with a clear focus on how pauses are effective and how a moment says so much and shows a real maturity and confidence that could do with being obvious earlier.
Overall this was a production brimming full of merit from a young company with plenty of ambition. That ambition, on this occasion may have fallen a little short but they seem like the ones who will make good use of the experience.
