2015AE_ACF

Amongst busy nurses and clumsy drunks, three young people find themselves in late night A&E. Robyn has suffered a dreadful accident and her three friends wait anxiously for news, and it’s not long before tensions hit breaking point.

There’s are some interesting linguistic choices here, particularly in a show that’s almost entirely dialogue-based; but the language is all slightly too far-fetched and poetic to believe. A+E is pitched and presented as a naturalistic play, but the characters constantly speak in metaphor as if it were a secret code. In turn, it’s difficult to invest in their story when they are so outlandish.

Here we have a cast of dysfunctional characters: misfits and outcasts of modern society, who have more issues than qualifications. They steal their mums’ M&S Prosecco, wear glitter jelly sandals, and have a bleak outlook on just about every aspect of life. I can see the appeal of creating such characters since they have such potential for complexity, but herein lies the issue. The characters of A+E are just slightly too similar to characters like Skins’ Effy and Cassie; characters who are plagued with problem after problem. However their struggles are not hugely relatable, and the characters don’t deal with them in a way that makes us sympathetic to them — to portray flawed characters is no bad thing, but we need a shred of relatability if we are to care about their story.

There is a sense that all of these characters are running from something, that they are motivated by some sense of fear; but we never really find out what they’re scared of. Typically of this kind of character, when we do find out they fear abstract concepts such as “oblivion”, which doesn’t cut it compared to genuine issues faced by huge cross-sections of current society, and which makes it even harder to connect with A+E.

A+E is playing at the Pleasance Courtyard (venue 33) until August 31 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For more information, visit the Fringe website.