Repertory Theatre[author-post-rating] (3/5)

CONTAINS SPOILERS.

After a successful run at last year’s festival, Elephant and the Mouse has returned with Repertory Theatre, its bizarre, absurdist Hamlet-inspired two-man farce. It’s a lot of fun and I don’t doubt its intelligence, but something about it left me feeling quite cold and I failed to find it as funny as the majority of people in the auditorium.

The play is split into two halves, both of which take place in the office of a repertory theatre’s Artistic Director. The first half an hour sees said AD berating Richardson, a playwright whose father was killed on stage during a production of Hamlet. The director spends much of the time shouting odd phrases and noises, making inexplicable gestures and generally being a pain as Richardson gets more and more agitated before losing it. For the second half – and here’s the twist – we see the same thing again, this time with Richardson standing in for the ghost of his father, who annoys the director throughout and explains the odd movements. It’s an incredibly smart piece of stagecraft and keeps the performance fresh, acting as the source of most of the comedy.

Repertory Theatre therefore makes a point about the ghosts of theatre and of the repertory system itself, which sees different actors taking on different parts. By using Hamlet as a source, we also get an interesting commentary on Shakespeare’s representation of fathers and enemies. The whole thing is delicately structured and tightly rehearsed.

But that doesn’t detract from the fact that I found the first half of the play just plain annoying, sending up the repertory system without really scrutinising it and relying on cheap sight gags for laughs. More than that though, I failed to care about these two characters, both of whom come across as incredibly arrogant and completely clueless. Though Richardson acts as the straight-man in this double act, he’s just as unbearable as the tyrannical director.

This is a play which revels in its own childishness and puerility before turning those things on their head. It doesn’t stretch much further than the central conceit, and is an interesting experiment in comedic theatre, but ultimately lacks the substance to be a must-see.

Repertory Theatre is at C Venues until 26 August. For more information and tickets visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.