Showing @ C venues – C, Edinburgh until Mon 25 Aug (not 11) @ 19:30
Murder is often a popular subject in drama and the young members of My Son Tristan hope to capitalise on this, by producing Jez Butterworth’s 1995 drug-fuelled crime caper. The employees of a nightclub in 1950s London fear the worst when their boss is apparently killed by a local gangster.
Director Danny Ridealgh has put together and overall commendable production. The set, although sparse, conveys the dingy claustrophobic atmosphere of a seedy club back room. While patches of colour, in the costumes and a fairytale-like puff of glitter, bring the play out of the realms of gritty drama into a comic-violent atmosphere you would expect from a Martin McDonagh text.
This quasi-gangster feel is accentuated by the wonderfully buffoon-like pairing of Sweets (Cody Maltby) and Potts (Shane Humberstone), whose straining efforts to be recognised as successful whiff of Del Boy and Rodney. The production however is let down by a few too many accent slips and an inability, due to some lacklustre performances, to achieve the intensity that’s important in making the menacing moments effective. Kept entertaining through Butterworth’s highly amusing script, as the Fringe progresses the cast may well find the passion to improve upon this okay production.