one4review | On 11, Aug 2024

This show deals with the idea of time and how to use it, especially if you don’t have very much of it. An Edinburgh show seems to be the perfect metaphor for this particular kind of existential dread. An hour or in this case 70 minutes can feel both an anxiety inducing massive amount of time to fill and a tiny amount of time in which to really say the thing you came to say. James sets himself a timer at the back of the stage visibly ticking down the minutes. He holds a thick sheaf of crumpled papers, throwing each away when a thought or subject has been dealt with. Delightfully, most of these have either nothing written on, a few squiggles, a picture or the odd word, which feels very true to the stuff we feel we’ve got to get through in life. The clock is occasionally acknowledged with a judgement that we’ve either not gotten through enough of the papers or are going to have to skip a few to make it to the end.

We’re told at the beginning of the show he loves the anatomy lecture theatre as space to perform and it shows, he uses the space well and it does feel fitting for a dissection of feelings on mortality. Upon entering the space, I’m handed a letter telling me the conclusions he’s come to whilst thinking about mortality are ‘aligned with well-worn truisms about enjoying what I have …., and above all love’. About half the time the papers relate to a list of things that James loves. Most of these little snippets are unremarkable in themselves and don’t really build into anything together. It feels truthful, but does leave me doing a bit of clock watching of my own.

However, he is a wonderful storyteller. The other half of our time is spent retelling one of his favourite stories, Robin Hood. There are running jokes throughout and it is vividly realised, casting this fantasy version with beloved English actors. He also supplies some interesting context to the story, imagining what a real-life Robin Hood may have experienced if he’d been in the crusading army of Richard I. He neatly finishes this narrative arc with the of Robin Hood’s death. I think if this had been the whole show it would’ve made for a really satisfying 70 minutes.

***
Reviewed by Sarah
Summerhall-Anatomy Lecture Theatre
Until 26th Aug (not 12 or 19)
18.00 (70mins)