Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Fri 7 Nov @ 19:30

nabokov and Soho Theatre‘s Symphony is a trio of short stories, told through song, drama and the odd dash of comedy. It feels like a radio play, one that hovers in the airwaves between Radio 4 thespianism and 6 Music hipsterdom. The quartet of performers – Jack Brown, Katie Elin-Salt, Liam Gerrard, Iddon Jones – are never acting long, before they are swapping mics or instruments for bursts of song.

Opener Jonesy (written by Tom Wells) is the odd one out of the three thematically, an affectionate schooldays tale of an asthmatic Welsh lad whose aspirations to a PE GCSE are floored in a rugby scrum, before getting an unlikely resurrection on the netball court. Jones plays his namesake with Billy Elliot-ish enthusiasm, flitting between teenage anxiety and delight. It’s a dappy little piece, but entertaining.

The latter two are love stories. A Love Song for the People of London (Ella Hickson) is bookended by a stirring theme tune on which the group unleash some splendidly luscious harmonies. Sandwiched in between is a sweet, if superficial, story of unrequited commuter love. A Movember-tached social misfit sets his sights on a geek-spec’ed London newbie. It doesn’t quite work out. It’s a brief fling of a play, rather than one that will last long in the heart, but fun nonetheless.

My Thoughts on Leaving You (Nick Payne) expands on the theme of love, only with more bite. Brown plays a real ale drinking everybloke who meets a girl (Elin-Salt) while waiting for his mate outside a nightclub toilet. Snatches of music and shouted conversation set the appropriate late night tone, and the play gets the nod as the funniest of the three, thanks firstly to some daft Latino singers, and secondly to a hammy power ballad, which as pastiche would be too obvious, but in the context of the story fits perfectly.

As a storytelling format, the gig-meets-play set up is great. All three pieces are snappy, easy to watch and never lose your attention. But as an evening show, at just under an hour and with the theatre space woefully underused, it can’t help but feel slight.