Showing @ Underbelly – Cowgate, Edinburgh until Sun 24 Aug (not 13) @ 19:30

However much medicine might develop, dying is always going to be unavoidable. Lighting designer and amateur documentary filmmaker Itai Erdal, considers death by speaking frankly about his experience of his mother’s cancer diagnosis.

Acknowledging that he is not an actor, Erdal’s delivery is free of the overly dramatic strains that such an emotive topic might be performed with. Instead he speaks, often voicing the thoughts of other members of his family, with the confidence of somebody who knows the story and it’s characters intimately but with a tender resonance for their significance, though some lines are lost to the floor. Footage of the disease’s progression give his words a visual reference point and further immerse you in the sobering tale.

Breaking from the main narrative, Erdal also talks through the tools of his trade, giving demonstrations of how the different lights can attribute different qualities to the subject in their beam. These intersections prevent the subject matter from becoming too oppressive and make a powerful visual metaphor for life. The simplicity of show’s set up emphasises the indiscriminate nature of disease and just how easy it is for somebody’s light to go out.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014