@ Summerhall, Edinburgh until Friday 28 August @ 21:30
Shift/- A Best of Spoken Word presents seven different shows over the seven days of the week during the Fringe. You will only have three opportunities to see each show and it will definitely be worth putting a late Sunday evening aside to see Exnihilo – the performance poetry/electronic music hybrid show from Bram E. Gieben.
The show starts with Bram (who also performs under the name Texture) taking to the stage with passion and enthusiasm to perform an optimistic poem called ‘Keep Going‘. It is a forward thinking piece about holding on, acting positive and embracing your faults. This theme carries on for the duration of the show, but Bram is too skilled a writer and performer to let the audience off the hook with a bright and cheery spoken word show. To understand the good in life you also have to understand the darker side of existence and Gieben clearly embraces this fact.
As the show progresses we follow the performer as he presents his own personal philosophy on life and the world we live in. Topics include being an outcast, the Scottish Referendum, activism and working class culture. The poems are performed over a dramatic electronic music soundtrack that the performer controls from a mixing desk. It is a fitting musical backdrop to the cynicism, anger and ideas that are being presented on stage.
It mat seem to obvious to say but Texture is the perfect pseudonym for Bram E. Geiben. Exnihilo is a show from a spoken word artist who is not afraid to take the the rough with the smooth, while eloquently presenting interesting and though provoking ideas to an attentive and engaged audience.