In trying to describe The Worst Thing You Could Do, I’ve come to find it isn’t a production to be read about - it needs to be experienced. Because that’s what it is, an experience.
At the end of the show, I realised I had sat next to writer and director Lily Kuenzler, and when she asked me what I thought, I responded honestly, “This is what the Fringe is supposed to be.”
Of the dozen shows I’ve seen so far, it’s the one I can’t stop thinking about the most. If you asked someone what the worst thing they could do is, I don’t think they could respond with anything as dark as Kuenzler’s writing - and I mean that as a compliment.
Presented as three short plays, they aren’t connected, but there is a common vein through them all; a man who does the worst things he could do at the general expense of a woman.
The first revolves around a man so alone that he doesn’t even own a second chair and a child who is too bold for her own good as they come to an unthinkable conclusion. The second shows how far a lonely widower coming to terms with his regrets and how far he will go to hold onto what he has lost. The third is a quite literal dissection of the death of a marriage and the many ways a husband does not understand his wife.
Berry’s ability to descend so quickly into depravity and madness is spectacular (perhaps a little concerning if he ever describes himself as a method actor), and Burrell’s use of movement and physicality brought a new dimension to her already fully-fleshed characters.
If you want a spend an hour of your day enthralled by the absurd and macabre, this is the show for you.
Tickets (£8-£10)
August 5-13 @ 16:40
Suitability: 14+ (Guideline)