Mash together gig theatre and Greek myths and you get Wright and Grainger. Although this Fringe, you get Wright and Grainger with bells on.

Their new show, Half Man // Half Bull isn’t technically a new show – they created it in 2020. But they created it as a soundtrack, months into the pandemic, as much at their wits’ end as the rest of us. It’s surely no coincidence that their first story’s about someone trapped in a maze and the second’s about people trapped in a tower. The double album was shared in physical form, by post, with a select audience. Wright and Grainger continue to receive films of people, in their home, back in deep lockdown, listening to the first ‘live’ music they’d heard in months and thanking the gods for it.

Four years on, they’re staging the production at the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s in two parts: you can see Theseus at 18:40 and Daedalus at 19:50. You can watch them together or you can watch either piece as a standalone production. Individually, they’re pitch perfect. As a pair, they’re magnificent.

You’ll know the bones of both stories. Theseus is despatched to kill the Minotaur but he first has to navigate the labyrinth to find it. Ariadne gives him a hand so it all works out as he hopes – in the short term, at least. Daedalus is maker of the labyrinth, a careless consequence of the metaphorical hand he gave to the king’s wife when she had her eye on a fine white bull gifted to her husband. But he’s better known as the maker of the waxen wings that didn’t do too well when flown too close to the sun.

The familiarity of these tales might fool you into thinking that they won’t offer anything new. But the marvel of Wright and Grainger’s work is the dexterity with which they translate these ancient myths into something that feels vibrant, current, and heartbreaking. The shows are delivered through an electrifying mix of spoken word, song, live guitar, and all sorts of electronic mixing and magic. From the wondrous, ‘get your swords out, boys’ lyric in All Man Bull Squad, you’re in safe hands. Alex Wright is a powder keg of energy, pacing the room with an infectious energy that’s magnetic to watch. Where Wright darts, Grainger strolls – his laid back lyrics a lovely counterpoint to Wright’s whirlwind. Long-standing collaborator Oliver Tilney is especially touching in his final reconciliation with the hand that life has dealt him. And Aminita Francis brings both a gorgeous vocal quality and a gorgeous sense of soul to both stories. All four have a captivatingly infectious energy that scoops up this audience and sweeps them along to the final collective resolution at the close of part two.

As Wright points out, The Dissection Room at Summerhall, formerly used as the name suggests for vet students, is a perfect place for a play about the death of a minotaur. But it’s a huge room with a high ceiling that’s almost entirely hard surfaces and the amplification of the music means the speech and the lyrics occasionally fight for their proper place in the sun. But really, that’s a detail. The heart, humanity and hope with which Wright and Grainger tell their stories is epic enough to see any ancient onlooking gods as satisfied as they should be.

Half Man // Half Bull is at Summerhall – Dissection Room until Mon 26 Aug 2024 (except Mon 19)at 16:40 and 19:50