★★★
Produced by Hurtwood House and written by Zaria JG, Around The Table explores the complexities and nuances that surround female friendships. It follows a group of friends, who within the 50 minute show, go through everything from grief, sexuality, unrequited love, abusive relationships, mental health struggles as well as the day to day petty squabbles that all friends have.
Around The Table begins with six good friends seemingly reuniting for a catch-up, over dinner. However, we then realise all is not quite as it seems. The cracks in the friendships begin to show and what follows is a series of vignette-style snapshots, that zoom in on each friend; their own backstory and their relationship with the rest of the group.
This is what makes and partially breaks the show. From the outset it’s a fascinating, playful structure. You won’t get bored easily, and each individual story will pull at your heartstrings and draw you in. However, this almost makes them more difficult to digest. There is a lot going on in a relatively short space of time. We have six different narratives all going on at once; they are some pretty heavy plot lines going on too. To resolve this, clearer on-stage narration is needed with some refining to the overall intent of the show required too.
The ending is a perfect example of why this is needed. It feels rushed, ever so slightly under-developed and leaves you feeling slightly redundant—it was a bit like eating water. You become completely invested in these six characters whose stories are all interwoven and then they each seem to have their own playground-esque squabble and leave the stage (and each other) to “get away from it all”. In short, the ending does undermine a lot of the character development achieved throughout the show, turning it into a bit of teen soap opera—although there is nothing majorly wrong with that, the ending just needs to be executed with more finesse.
The script is relatively well balanced, however, some intended moments of humour don’t quite land. Each performer is well rehearsed, there are very few moments of hesitation and their rapport with one another is genuinely endearing—that is a pleasure to see!
The space is used well. The placements on stage are well spaced out and work within the context of the storytelling. Having the cast split into pairings helped reinforce the vignette-like structure within the show, whilst reinforcing the cast’s authentic rapports with each other. Some contemporary dance is added in—this wasn’t needed and felt misplaced, contrived and a little clunky. Music could have played a more central part to the storytelling and enhanced the overall energy of the show.
So, Around The Table has a lot to like about it. It has an excellent cast of performers who work genuinely well together; it covers a wide array of topical themes and will be relatable for a lot of audience members. For the most part, its vignette-like structure is successful and engaging. However, some moments of dialogue and choreography fail to land as intended, the ending needs fleshing out more and clearer on-stage narration is needed. With some more refining, this show does have a bright future ahead of it.
In this show, dinner and drama are certainly served but they come with a few too many side dishes!
Around The Table will run until 23 August at 236 Olive Studio at Greenside @ George Street as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Cory Gourley
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