Bluebeard[author-post-rating] (3/5 Stars)

Trinity Fringe Productions has attempted perhaps one of the most ambitious original plays of the Fringe festival with Bluebeard. It proposes far more themes than it could possibly explore in one hour, but the entire production reeks of all-round unpolished talent.

The opening sequence is deceptively straightforward: while visiting their elderly mother Emily and David argue over what to do with her and over the cost of keeping her in a home. Emily says “I wish you’d remember the important things” oblivious to the irony. So far so conventional, although it is a searingly honest depiction of familial bickering in the face of tragedy nonetheless. Suddenly the lights brighten, mum is on her feet and everyone has a cut-glass accent. Two minutes later it’s a French accent and all three are stood on their armchairs, before being taken on a trip to “Cuckooland” (the theme of mental health should by this point be self-evident).

Bluebeard traverses memories, regrets and imaginings of its dementia-afflicted main character. Each episode takes us to a different segment of the mother’s disjointed psyche. Even so, transitions are astoundingly fluid: a schoolteacher in her past demands eight-sides of lines before we see the same teacher, instantly playing David again, folding-and-tearing a letter into eight pieces. Likewise episodes are launched by trigger-words, like “melodramatic”. The lighting changes are, at times, clumsy, although that is possibly because the dialogue is so snappy. The young three-piece cast all deal with these sporadic tempo-changes masterfully, switching character as simply as changing a mask.

The title, referencing the Bluebeard fairy-tale about a wife-killer, is inspired by the moment where the final wife discovers the skeletons of previous wives in her husband’s dungeon and recognises that the cause of her unhappiness in marriage had been unknown fear. This is an interesting interpretation, which is echoed by the lurking possibility that Emily may repeat the mistakes of her mother.

At times the play is self-indulgent. Certain sequences go on longer than they ought to. What’s more the passage from H. G. Wells’ The Zoological Classes feels immodest. There’s nothing wrong with being high-brow, but clogging what feels like an impromptu lecture into an otherwise-perfect narrative seems slightly alienating, if not pretentious.

Some more discipline might also might have given relevance. While it bothers me to have to call a work of obvious intelligence too ambitious, the play does overreach. Themes range from the euthanasia debate to the impossibility of truly understanding someone from your own perception. These ideas attempt to untangle from their metaphysical knot at the denouement as the daughter thinks aloud. Yet, just as you can’t throw 1,000 darts in one turn and expect all of them to hit treble-20, unfortunately during a one hour play there are only so many themes you can communicate.

That said, if you do throw 1,000 darts, a handful will almost certainly will hit the mark, especially if you are good, and this group undeniably are. Not only do they understand how to write good drama, but they know how to deliver the story in an arresting way. For its faults I cannot award more than three stars, but it is a truly promising endeavour.

Bluebeard is playing theSpace @ Surgeons Hall until [show end date]. For more information and tickets, see the Edinburgh Fringe Review.