Showing @ Assembly George Square, Edinburgh until Mon 26 Aug (even dates, not 20) @ 15:20
Imagine the cast of Glee running away with a travelling circus and you can begin to grasp the general sense of Freak Show. The cast, from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, are unarguably talented. The script is a dark musing on voyeurism and an accusation against the audience’s collusion in this exploitation, and in the right hands one suspects it could be powerful stuff. But there is a hopeless mismatch between the two which makes this uncomfortable viewing for entirely different reasons.
The minimalistic staging doesn’t help matters: when all the performers are dressed in normal street clothes and no theatrical make-up and the set is simply a stack of chairs, it is all too easy to believe the audience are sitting in on a high school rehearsal, albeit one with some seriously gifted students. It is simply impossible to believe that these fresh-faced youths have lived the bitter, jaded lives they are singing about or that they would do anything but welcome the attention of any audience.
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