Photo Credit: Marina Moore

Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Jun

In the heat of the Traverse, Fringe fever is catching on again. Taking productions out of the context of the festival and touring them can be a tricky business. It’s a result companies strive for. Nearly a year after Pepperdine University won a Fringe First, they have returned to Edinburgh to begin a Scottish tour with their award winning production Why Do You Stand There In The Rain?

Written by Peter Arnott and directed by Cathy Thomas-Grant, this ensemble piece tells the historical story of the Bonus Army and the first Occupy protest in 1932. Betrayed by their Government, 25,000 American World War One veterans protested against the economic and political systems that withheld their promised financial relief. The twelve strong cast multi-role-play throughout, at times highlighting individual characters, but more often than not, representing the collective thoughts and ideologies of the time.

The exchange between Pepperdine and the Scottish Theatre community has been a fruitful one: American history and Scottish theatrical tradition blended to deliver a powerful and provocative performance. The music of Woody Guthrie and his contemporaries is played live on stage to compliment the action; the play is a dense, fast-paced, energetic and hugely entertaining depiction of a people marching for change. While Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby fills cinema screens, this staging of the seminal event in the Great Depression offers a very different, yet still thoroughly insightful, portrayal of the failings of the American Dream. It’s a timely piece that will continue to resonate with any audience that feels cheated by a system. The benchmark for the festival is high and if 2013 gives us more drama like this, we have a lot to look forward to this August.

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