one4review | On 13, Aug 2025

It’s always a delight to see a truly unique show. David Elms Describes a Room may be, as the man himself admits, not the most catchy title, but what it might lack in quippyness, it more than makes up for in accuracy. If you come see this show, David Elms will definitely describe a room for you. What’s hard – nearly impossible to say – is why that’s both funny and incredibly entertaining.

The show is so simple in its execution it feels almost like a joke. David Elms walks into the performance space and, with the help of his audience, piece by piece, starts describing a room around himself. By asking simple prompts to an audience member, such as describing what decoration hangs on a wall, or what can be seen out of the window, Elms constructs an entirely new and entirely unique imaginary living space. And, by extension, the act also creates the image of a person who must live here as the little details of their life are given by their possessions. We might learn of precious memories from a photograph on a shelf, food preferences from untidied plates, maybe there’s a pair of crutches, a dog bed, a hidden supply of whiskey and all the other little footprints a life leaves behind. It’s an oddly beautiful and intimate experience at points, tickling perhaps that voyeuristic urge to look through a stranger’s living room window and judge their wallpaper.

Elms starts the show by asking the audience to not feel any pressure to be funny with their suggestions and while, on the whole this request is followed, there are sufficient curveballs thrown in by an audience put on the spot to ensure that, whoever’s room Elm’s is crafting, they’re certainly far from normal.

Elms has an incredibly gentle and generous approach to his humour and the construction of his make-believe world, barely raising his voice and softly chuckling at the more outlandish suggestions that come his way, but never working to make anything feel invalid. His jokes are equally soft – usually just whimsically remarking on the way something is phrased, but each comment is perfectly pitched to extract a laugh.

The show ends with a wonderful moment with Elms entering and exploring this brand new invisible room, one by one interacting with the items that have been placed there by the audience’s imaginations, almost entirely silently. It’s improv at an extremely high level that Elms makes look effortless. It is a comforting delight of a show and a lovely pallet cleanser from the high-energy madness of the world outside.

*****

Reviewed by Tom

Pleasance Courtyard – Baby Grand

21.35 (1hr)

Until 24 Aug