The playing space is set with cardboard boxes, creating a rather obvious sense of shipment, of movement, of ungroundedness. Barton Williams’s piece of historical theatre weaves together emotional reflections and personal testimonies, crafting a narrative about the children adopted during the Vietnam War, and the often ungrounded nature of their identity formations. On a sentence level, Williams’s writing is bright, theatrical, and full of rhyme. On the level of narrative, it lacks an organising principle. His performance is similarly erratic as he quickly jumps between characters, moving through the space with a certain ungrounded quickness. Despite these faults, Williams achieves moments of great complexity, thematising ambivalence toward all the privileges and shifting identities of Vietnam War era adoption programmes.

Summerhall, until 26 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Ben Flaumenhaft]