Edinburgh Fringe 2025
365 Days/365 Plays
Penn Theatre Arts Program
Genre: Dark Comedy, Devised, Theatre, Youth Theatre
Venue: The Space on the Mile
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Here are three young people working with a challenge; from a treasure trove of text the director and her drama students have created a modern and also strangely old fashioned performance.
Review
The stage is strewn with objects, we barely have time to glance at the two-page programme leaflet and the action begins. In the dim light, three young people in basic drama school black leotards and white socks start moving about, no words are spoken. This is a different kind of performance from those Fringe shows where a story is told from beginning to end, this is young people working with a text, with a challenge.
If a well-known author (Suzan-Lori Parks) decides to write 365 plays in 365 days in the year 2006 there will be a lot of material to work with for future generations of theatre makers. From this treasure trove of text, director Margit Edwards of the Penn Theatre Arts Program in the USA and her three young students have created a modern and also strangely old-fashioned performance. I am very much reminded of theatre happenings in the 1970s where often there was no complete story told but, and here I quote from the programme, we are confronted with ‘movement and action scores’. It takes a moment or two for an unprepared viewer to adjust their preconceptions.
The three actors, I’d prefer to call them players, are young and confident, especially Elliot Ross-Dick moves with a balletic grace and owns his/their monologue completely, a highlight of the event. There is a set piece which returns and all three make it their own with variations in structure and intensity. I loved some of the visuals in this scene: a kettle with a light inside is filled with beaded necklaces that double as bathroom accessories and are used as washcloths, dental floss etc. All three players are fascinating to watch as they find their own personal way of interacting with such an unusual prop.
To perform a large number of relatively unrelated vignettes in such a short time is a classic challenge for all who have been to drama school. It is very enjoyable to watch these, forgive me for calling them ‘practice pieces’, brought to a stage at the Edinburgh Fringe. It is great to be reminded of where theatre often begins for young people. As a director I can appreciate the talents of Pandora Schoen who with her more serious demeanour and gravitas is a perfect counterpart to the more quicksilver and bubbling persona of Anya Rothman. All three are well guided by their director and supported by a large team but also let loose to play their hand with love and laughter. They are wonderfully secure in their reliance upon each other, never afraid to touch, to make eye contact, to support each other on their journey to a life in theatre.
