Note: This review is from the 2012 Fringe

Theatre / 55 min / £18(£13,£6), £20(£15) / 14+

Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until 26 Aug – run ended

There is something oddly mesmerising about watching actors exert themselves on stage. It pins our empathy to the suffering of the character and questions whether we want to see them succeed or fail. It’s a notion teased out by Gary McNair in his new show about escaping unhappiness but simultaneously welcoming new opportunities.

Over the course of this tight, one-hour show, Shauna Macdonald plays Jane, a long distance runner who uses the activity to temper her seizures after being recently diagnosed with epilepsy. It’s with great strength and composure that Macdonald performs the whole show while running on a treadmill, as her character takes part in the San Antonio Death Race (a 110-mile nonstop desert event). This is clearly highly symbolic theatre, about how we are all running from or towards something, generating some clumsy statements about the pains and pleasures of our home life, but all of which at least resonate with every member of society.

Jane also uses this method to escape her personal woes, namely an overprotective (but loving) husband and slightly neglected son. It’s ironic that as she continues to push herself by running on lunch breaks and after work, her schedule becomes just as punishing as the fear of another attack. She almost goes full circle, attempting to prevent her seizures, but inadvertently inducing more pressure to succeed. As a result, there is a feeling that running will not only fail to heal her physical condition, it will not provide any cathartic or spiritual moments of triumph.

It is the composition of the show which explores more interesting territory. The rhythmic pounding of Macdonald’s jogging brings a kind of steadiness to a subject matter which is concerned with a dangerous, erratic and often brutal illness. Clever use of multimedia with gentle music and faint video breaks up the performance nicely, as Jane reaches checkpoints along the way, signalling how far in her “journey” she’s travelled, but also reminding the audience of Macdonald’s own physical toughness. This is rich, affecting theatre, trying to experiment with the depth of solo shows but also addressing the nature of truly physical performance. It in no way posits wholly new ideas about personal freedom and inner-strength, but it juggles complex notions about salvation in a considered, novel way.