one4review | On 28, Aug 2026

David Elms wanders onto the stage and, in a low-key, affable way, easily makes us chuckle and then laugh regularly while explaining the shows format.

The premise of the show is pretty simple: he needs us to help him describe a room. He points at an audience member and asks what the first object is. It’s a broken Rubik’s Cube, we’re off!

What follows is equal parts calm questioning, playfulness, commentary, inclusion, an impressive amount of imaginative guidance, and really a feat of memory. Slowly, he builds the room with all of us. There’s a filing cabinet. One drawer contains Nicola Sturgeon inside a caravan (having been shrunk by a laser).)

There’s a glass window, and outside it stands an oak tree with a bicycle secured to it by a massive chain. There’s just a fun interplay between the audience members who are coming up with stuff on the spot. With Elm transporting their hasty thought into a concrete and remembered reality. Miming how that would actually work in real life: the chain would be so long that you would have to wrap it around yourself twice then cycle off.

The room continues to grow: a Spider-Man costume, a blackboard with 30=x on it (inexplicable to anyone outside the room), an anvil, a long maroon-and-brown striped scarf, a table with one of those clicky frogs on it and a Rolodex containing a message from Richard Branson saying, “You are my friend.” an anvil hung on a wall, a long maroon-and-brown striped scarf that makes you feel good, a table with one of those clicky frogs on it and a Rolodex containing a business card from Richard Branson saying, “You are my friend.”

There’s an uncomfortable chair made from an old oak tree in the garden, a mirror featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and a fake spider, a chest of jewels containing a pendant belonging to someone’s granny, a photograph of someone’s two grannies, and a toolbox containing steel rulers, a ruler and a hole punch and an adjustable spanner.

There’s also a cupcake tree bearing the phrase “Don’t look inside the box,” a shocked-looking boar’s head, a bow and arrow, a carving of a slate dog with its mouth open, a dead lily, a skinny red plastic door, a three-inch oak door and a miniature train set.

Never before and never again. Theres a magic to this show – this will be the only record.

It was a privilege to be in that room and watch David Elms enthusiastically accept everyone’s offers, bring them to life and then play inside the world we had created together. He is a consummate improviser who has created a truly timeless show: open to everyone, endlessly playful and simply fun to be part of and to observe.

The joy of our shared imagining—as he donned a Spider-Man costume, wearing a scarf and a pendant holding the face of an audience member’s favourite grandmother, hunting down Nicola Sturgeon with a bow and arrow after she had jumped from a miniature train onto a caravan while passing Postman Pat—was truly unparalleled.

This is an extraordinarily creative show, but its greatest achievement is the community of creativity Elms creates in the room. It’s joyful, good, clean, positive fun for everyone. I’m not sure if the Edinburgh run is sold out yet but you can catch it in London at the SOHO theatre.

David Elms has created a joyfully collaborative show that will run forever.

★★★★½
Stephen “Sharpie” Sharp
Pleasance
Until 30 August