Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Going
Studio B Productions
Genre: Dark Comedy, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: TheSpace UK
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Going starts with high-minded intent, adds some exceptional acting, and attempts to reach a destination that mixes the personal with the political. It doesn’t quite reach the final station, due to some credibility-straining twists, but it’s an interesting journey nonetheless.
Review
In Going, a man and a woman meet on a train. The man (James Trewin, as Fajr) is playing guitar and being annoying; the woman (Nissryne Dib, as Yasmine) is suitably annoyed. Very quickly – perhaps too quickly – they move past their initial superficial exchanges and start grappling with weighty issues and the past.
Going describes itself as “inspired by the works of Anton Chekhov,” which naturally prompts one to be on the alert for the connections. Certainly, its four-scene structure recalls his famous four-act scripts. Naturalism, at least in the realistic sets (and eerily faithful train announcements, voiced by Jase Rivers and Paul Wood), check. But then, tragedy strikes.
No, not in the (offstage, another Chekhovian nod) suicide of an unknown and unnamed person that halts their train and forces the two characters into an extended interaction, but in an initial momentous coincidence. This is followed shortly thereafter by additional untenable coincidences that take the story definitively out of the naturalism that was working so well for it up to that point, and into the realm of the didactic, even moralistic, play. This is also, unfortunately, our point of departure with Chekhov.
All is not lost, however. James Trewin, as Fajr, is an absolutely delightful, sarcastic, wry sprite. Their all-too-brief guitar-playing and singing provide much of the sincerity and emotional impact of the production. Theirs is the kind of talent that prompts one to make mental note of their name, so you can later say you saw them at the start.
This out-sized charisma also carries with it a problem, however. Dib, as Yasmine, is perfectly capable, albeit with a tendency to swing abruptly between flatness and histrionics – an issue that, to be fair, might be more in the writing than the acting. But, through no fault of her own, the scenes are unbalanced by the degree to which Trewin shines in every exchange.
These exchanges, once the twists are revealed, feel more like the swapping of talking points rather than dialogue grounded in three-dimensional characterizations. A good structure is in place to ratchet up the stakes, but, with only a tenuous emotional connection to the main characters available to the audience, this well-constructed engine doesn’t actually deliver tension.
Going is to be commended for taking on the serious and desperately-important issues facing the world today. Perhaps, if expectations for a naturalistic work hadn’t been created by how it positions itself, its artificiality might be easier to overlook. The drama that precedes the twists is – in large part, thanks to Trewin – both entertaining and compelling. With a number of successful elements in place, Going is well on its way to being a good piece of theatre.
