The ad hoc environment of the Fringe has always been a loaded forum for shows to react to global events, and inevitably this year's headline topic, the global economic downturn, is the focus of ambitious young company Spitting Distance.
As a reflection of the ignorance to the sudden recession we now face, it explores the West's ailing financial state through the spectrum of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, in particular, the account of a young woman who jumped to her death.
It is staged with a simple set of a balancing beam, two TV screens flashing cut-together images of busy sidewalks and MTV-esque montages, and a camera that focuses on the live action at various moments throughout. It is a devised piece that melds together short dialogues of facts, figures and personal stories; exploring the less tangible reasons for fiscal collapse through the culpability and psychology that the generation of credit and borrowing have to face.
Part theatre, part installation in approach, Spitting Distance broaches an epic topic with a personal focus, but rather than leave the audience shaken from their apathetic social awareness, it pushes them further into indifference.
Billed as 60 minutes, but lasting only 30, there were many shifts in seats, watch-checking and glazed expressions as the promised noisy, fast-paced approach, with a great sense of tempo and rhythm, was not delivered.
The audience had to fight through so much jilted and disjointed fractions, that it could not become involved in the piece. The delivery was self-indulgent and repetitive with many unnecessary arty-for-arts-sake scenes. This was a show with an interesting topic that absolutely ignores how to get through to its generation.
Times: 6-31 August (not 18 Aug), 7.10pm
© Lindsay Corr, August 2009