Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 18 May

With the Panda and Polar Bears both prominent symbols of man’s detrimental effect on the planet, Angela Clerkin harks back to a more savage ideal of the mammal, to depict our negative effects on ourselves. An embellished autobiographical account, Clerkin plays herself in the story of her last case as a solicitor’s clerk, with Guy Dartnell filling all the other roles. During a pre-trial interview with a murder suspect, the interviewee tells Angela, “It wasn’t me. The Bear did it.” Defying her superiors, Angela becomes embroiled in a quest to hunt down the elusive creature.

The pair paint their narrative through a combination of addresses to the audience, acted out scenes, songs and an occasional drawling noir-type narration. The vignettes play out like memories of the introspectively recounting Clerkin, a bubble of action floating in darkness, created through Rae Smith and Lucy Sierra’s shadowy illumination of their minimalist, multi-function set. Flanked by props and costumes and with most changes happening within sight, Lee Simpson’s exposed, rough and ready approach creates an intimate relationship with the audience. Despite the intermittent voice-over tugging on the fictional strings of characters like Philip Marlowe, Clerkin’s fresh-faced and earnestly frank rapport with her viewers further dismantles ‘the fourth wall’, rendering the atmosphere more like an animated private conversation.

Sometimes the artistic flourishes feel a bit much (Dartnell’s bluesy song about ways a bear could kill you), overcompensating for the slightly drawn-out plot. At other instances however, visual additions (the blood-red lengths of string pulled like scars from Clerkin’s body) poetically emphasise that although the story revolves around finding a bear, it’s also very much about Clerkin herself. Amidst the many comic moments is a reflective character analysis, with Clerkin using the bear as a metaphor for our wilder, more primitive side, to talk about the darker aspects of her own personality. What starts out as a light-hearted, if not surreal investigation, grows into a candid exploration of self-discovery into the hidden turbulence of repressed aggression.

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