Midsummer (A Play with Songs)

Traverse    6 - 30 August @ Various Times    Traverse Theatre Company

Here’s one for the locals (or those intimate with Edinburgh!).  This roller-coaster of a show has a chase-like quality that takes us on a tour of Edinburgh, all marked out on the accompanying map.  This fast, funny and downright good fun show is delivered by Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon with energy and panache.  David Greig’s warm, witty text has an almost fairytale quality to this story of an unlikely couple – she’s a successful lawyer and he’s a petty thief.  Both are 35 (we have Bob’s birthday bash during the play – and yes, I do mean ‘bash’!) and the polarity between them becomes more and more blurred as events unfold.

Technically, this production excels – a beautifully designed abstract, flexible set from Georgia McGuiness with lighting from Claire Elliot create the whole of Edinburgh as a playground for Helena and Bob.  The music, such as it is, is played well on guitar by both actors and some very good singing, too.  The trouble is that they are just songs – they comment on rather than contribute to the plot.

How I wish David Greig had grasped the nettle more tightly and been brave enough to write this as a full-blown piece of musical theatre.  There is a fair amount of underscoring to the text – how I wish he could have found the voices for Helena and Bob to sing as their characters rather than as commentators.