I don’t like the title and it didn’t seem to have much relevance to the production, so it was probably someone’s idea of a joke. I decided to see this show as the cast managed to give me a flyer almost every day this week and one must reward persistence.
There are four people in this production and they enter the stage wearing suits, which they remove to the opening track, and they perform the majority of the show in their underwear. This is the story of four damaged people and during the hour we learn a little about how they became as we see them and also how they have all been touched by what appeared to be a guardian angel. The first girl suffers from an excess of beauty and, as a consequence, believes that all she is is a shell for others to use. The second girl suffered at the hands of her brutal father and has repeated the cycle by choosing boyfriends stamped in a similar mould. The first man had the indignity to be the youngest child and, constantly verbally abused by his brother and sister, has withdrawn into a shell of loneliness. The last man is one of society’s dropouts, believing there is no point in acheiving anything until he sees his best friend fall to his death during a stunt gone wrong.
All four meet at the hospital and discuss their encounter with Marvin, who has reached inside their shells and healed some of the pain within their hearts but will it be enough for them to continue the process or is it a case of too little, too late?
The cast in this show do an excellent job of conveying the stories of their lives with emotion and pain, and although there was a little too much gratuitous swearing, the script is of a very high standard. The only problems I had were with the music being played too loud and distorting in the speakers and the final song dragging on a bit too long, thereby losing some of it’s impact.
Visit the Fringe Website for full show details.