Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Ohio
The Bengsons
Genre: Autobiography, Live Music, Storytelling
Venue: Assembly Festival
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Ohio is a powerful and emotionally charged musical experience which blends personal struggle with artistic expression, The Bengsons (Abigail and Shaun) perform lilting, harmonic and heartfelt music, and they’ve used their talents to weave Shaun’s journey with music, and hearing loss. The use of creative captions enhances the narrative.
Review
From the moment this musical duo take to the stage there is joy and laughter. They are witty narrators, Abigail energetically so, and in this show their focus is on Shaun’s life from early boyhood in a Christian camp on the Ohio/Canadian borders, through a move into suburbia which is less than idyllic, and then the gradual degeneration of his hearing. Like his preacher father he will become functionally deaf but this is far from a misery ‘poor me’ memoir, nor is it an attempt to be seen as inspirational for battling on. This is a matter of fact telling of a life, first in the safe haven of Shaun’s family and then with Abigail and their son (be warned about a challenging childbirth story). Sh*t happens could be their motto, but all manner of things can be borne with love.
Delightfully the show uses quirky props and projection (although more thought needs to be given as to how all the audience can appreciate them – live camera maybe?), like illustrations in a picture book. There is something of a children’s fable about this show, despite its tough plot; the songs have a linear story telling simplicity. And a lot of clever thought has gone into how to illustrate Shaun’s particular hearing loss using sound and vision.
Ohio feels as much about a state of mind – one which has influenced the development of their music and performance style – as it is a description of a place. The story features the wilderness and the freedom a child can experience there as well as the restrictions of being in a regular home in small town America dealing with being other, before being rescued by a sympathetic music teacher. The lyrics of the set list are poetic without hard rhymes and a typical verse/chorus construction. They describe themselves as performing indie folk. The creative captioning (projected subtitles) really help here because it means all the lyrics can be understood and admired. Abigail and Shaun use voice, guitar, keyboard, a drum track and a phrase sampler to create a rich textured sound. The audience are asked to contribute to this tapestry with voice and body percussion.
The Bengsons are engaging musicians and storytellers and Ohio is a show that will stick with you long after the performance.
