Finding beauty and poetry in the everyday, writer-actor Rory Aaron’s play is an adaptation of his own epic poem. The vibrant wit of his verse is matched with his charm and charisma as a performer. We meet a series of characters in a small, northern town: the kind of town, as Aaron says, that you never leave. Moving from present day, when our protagonists are 25, to ten years earlier, when they are 15 year old schoolboys (with little interest in school…), he eschews obvious dramatic conventions and cliches, resolute in his commitment to stay true to life. In celebrating the ordinariness of his characters, Aaron shows that we are all extraordinary, that we all have a story worth telling.

Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 5/5 | [Andy Leask]