YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2013 2/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews
(As/Des)cent (DBS Productions)
By Polly Davidson | Published on Sunday 4 August 2013
There was a spooky subtlety to this new piece of ‘horror’ by JD Henshaw; though ‘(As/Des)cent’ was just a bit too subtle. The play’s premise – a young man, self-committed to an asylum following his girlfriend’s death, revealing to his therapist that her envious spirit lives on – allowed for a predictable climax, undoing any tension that the too-infrequent stage-trickery created. Achieving only mild suspense throughout, there was little to feel disturbed by in a play that billed itself as horror. Static staging and a script short on scares forced the story to peter out, rather than shock or unnerve. The performances, and the writing itself, were decent, but this wordy production will leave horror lovers disappointed, and far from frightened.
Sweet Grassmarket, until 25 Aug (not 12-18), times vary.
tw rating 2/5 | [Polly Davidson]
