Showing @ Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh until Mon 26 Aug @ 17:55
Blam! pitches itself as ‘Die Hard meets The Office’, a high-octane extravaganza set within the confines of an average workplace. Growing restless at their desks, three workers decide to spice things up by playing games behind their boss’s back. Soon all four are involved in a tour de force of physicality, manipulating their surroundings to banish office monotony in style.
It would not be an overstatement to claim that Blam! probably boasts the most concentrated amount of raw talent on any one Fringe stage. Whether running up walls, hanging from lights or somersaulting backwards, the cast perform feats of brawn and agility that most of us can only dream of. Mundane objects such as a humble water cooler are imaginatively transformed into characters of their own, adding a generous helping of comedy to the proceedings.
And yet, at 70 minutes, Blam! can’t help becoming a little relentless. With scant characterisation and little in the way of plot, its displays of derring-do begin to feel superficial, not helped by its over-reliance on a bombastic soundtrack. See Blam! to remind yourself what the human body can do on a stage, but don’t hope for much behind the spectacle.