What if the story of a not-very-good rock band was actually about everything? What if you bludgeoned a man to death but he kept getting back up? What if some of the Fringe’s most anarchic theatre-makers produced a linear show with three acts? Such questions are asked and somewhat answered by ‘PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD’, which purports to be about the three Wiggin sisters, forced by their father to form The Shaggs, a band so arrhythmic and unmelodic they became accidental darlings of the avant-garde. But it careens gloriously off the rails. It’s a show about patriarchy and music and being slowly crushed to death. A cacophonous, raucous howl that batters your eardrums and paints the floor with your blood. 

Summerhall, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Jon Stapley]