one4review | On 08, Aug 2018

If ever a venue was made for a Fringe show, the subterranean Former Women’s Locker Room at Summerhall is the perfect setting for Zanetti Productions ‘The Basement Tapes’. When the audience enter, they are seated in a basement storage room full of memories compete with blinking electrics, Henry Mancini records, old clothes and boxes and bin bags. The play begins with the room being plunged into darkness and a girl making a phone call. Although we discover that the call is innocent, it is an indication that we will are likely to be unsettled as the hour progresses. The same girl then begins to rifle shelves and boxes and her initial bouncy bravado is broken down as she is faced with memories of her grandmother. When she discovers a tape recorder and a tape in her grandmother’s coat the revelations begin.
Stella Reid, as the grand daughter, gives an enthusiastic and energetic performance. Her initial brashness softens as time passes and she becomes a sympathetic character and definitely more likeable. The shortness of the play renders the reveal slightly underwhelming but I won’t deny I was unsettled when the room was plunged into darkness and when we listened to the tapes. It is certainly a diverting hour of drama and if you like your spine being tingled then go and see The Basement Tapes.
Reviewed by Rona
Summerhall Former Women’s Locker Room
6.30pm
Until 26th August (not 13th or 20th)