ED2013 2/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews

Leaving Planet Earth (Edinburgh International Festival / Grid Iron)

By | Published on Friday 30 August 2013

It’s hard to believe that Earth has been racked by three world wars and numerous natural disasters as our bus to ‘New Earth’ whizzes through a functioning Edinburgh. And whilst the Climbing Arena made an appropriately futuristic venue for our ‘acclimatisation centre’, it was still obviously a rock climbing gym. The theatrical style kept switching: we’d be directly addressed as migrants and then suddenly we’d become witnesses to a private conversation between characters. To make the production more realistic, multimedia was utilised in the form of futuristic tablets, industrial sounds and our flashing hand pieces, but overall the whole experience was unbelievable and ended up tiresome. This was a nice idea from Grid Iron, who know a thing or two about site-specific theatre, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work as well as other site-specific productions.

Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, until 24 Aug (not 20), 8.00pm.
tw rating 2/5 | [Samantha Strachan]



READ MORE ABOUT: |