At lunch time at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Tamsin Shasha is serving up a masterclass in graceful acrobatic control and awesome physical power in a performance that is as athletic as it is elegant as it is intelligent.
Bacchic, a version of Euripides’ classic, by Tamsin Sasha and Jonathan Young asks poignant questions about the relationship between modern media celebrity, the cult of the personality and deity.
There is much admirable craft displayed in the mechanics of their adaptation and they have succeeded in bringing an ancient text to such vivid contemporary life, you simply cease to care what the original was about. Despite the fact the adaptation is inevitably weaker when it attempts to answer the deeper philosophical questions the production eloquently poses, it is a strong script that deserves recognition in its own right.
Having pared a great epic to the bone and stolen from it what she wants, Tamsin Sasha sets out to tell her tale through a combination of minimal physical theatre techniques, circus skills and studied classical characterisation. That may sound like a recipe for heavy handedness but there is such a deft lightness of touch about her performance and this production it transforms the show into a delight to watch.
This is a superb solo performance piece and I urge you to see it.
Times: 1-27 Aug (not 7,14,21), 1.30pm.