Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Small Talking
You Do You Theatre Co
Genre: Musical Theatre, New Writing
Venue: Greenside at Riddles Court
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Written with a twist in mind this works to an extent. It has performances of merit within a structure with needs tinkering with. It sings and makes a welcome appearance in a place where finding out what works should bring enough suggestions to take this further and make it tighter.
Review
Two people meet on a park bench, both of whom are there to see their fathers. One has a close relationship – Mark Played by Oli Pont – with theirs whilst the other – Rhona played by Heather Cavalet Hsieh – is estranged but feeling the responsibility of having to be the dutiful daughter. Over time the relationship grows until there is the realisation that they have the same father and amongst the emergence of feelings for each other, or so is hinted at, is the relationship complexities of seeing the same man in distinctly different ways.
It is a very interesting conceit, but I part ways with it in some of its execution. That they eventually realise that the same man is being visited by them, at some point is a bit of a stretch. Surely a nurse would have said that their brother or sister had just been in, or would you help your sister realise she should be here more often or whatever the possible connection with staff should be. Would there not be regular case conferences to address his needs in care and both be invited, the non-attending one noted to the attending sibling as absent? However, although that might heighten the dramatic, it would not be theatre if the absurd was not part of the storyline, so an argument could be made that this is precisely why it is an interesting story to tell. But its omission from consideration does tend to diminish the straight and conventional methodology used to tell it.
Our two performers can clearly sing, and aside from a few notes that did not quite hit their specified mark, they do so in a musical theatre style that is absolutely where it needs to be. Vocally they did take a little while to warm up onstage and hit their musical stride but once in it, they pushed the narrative along well.
The songs don’t hang in the memory long but are a mixture of tempos which does help. The lyrics could do with a little bit of a reimagine. They tend to be obvious and if this has any legs it may need to think about the uniqueness of the situation being much more heightened than something we meander into. When they argue about tradition being the reason why people look after their parents, this opens up so many deep possibilities, I hoped we would be able to dive right into them and have a great conversation – one sided admittedly about the whole issue of having to, when you don’t want to. But it fell into standard fare pretty quickly.
There is a really neat idea here and the kernel of something which could be expanded into each universe – there are clearly budget constraints for us all so getting this up to the Fringe is a great idea – where we see more of where they have come form each day. Is there a spouse in the background, will the scoundrel father pass on the wandering eye, does the woman who does this out of some form of responsibility do so whilst neglecting something else in her life? There are a range of possibilities, not least the answer to the question, when did the dog arrive? This feels like a company who could do more with the glimpse into what they have brought us – now up to them to explore and expand, and given they can do New York to Switzerland, his might be an easier step to make.
