Damned[author-post-rating] (2/5 stars)

Think watered-down Waiting for Godot, populated by characters from Carroll’s Wonderland who are dressed like characters from Brideshead Revisited (go on, Google it – it’s a very specific look) and that’s pretty much Aireborne Theatre’s Damned in a nutshell… or possibly not. In an arid and unspecified landscape, two men engage in circuitous word games and strange power-plays, overseen by a third observer itching to switch the rules. It’s some sort of psychological experiment meets dystopian daymare in the form of a Beckettian illogic labyrinth – and the reason I’m using so many lists here is that I can’t really articulate what Damned is in itself, other than a mishmash of its absurdist influences and a series of flashy but meaningless theatrical flourishes.

At the very least, Damned is held together by some accomplished performances, and the exchanges move at the lightning speed they need to in order to work. Dave Reeson is immensely watchable as the haughty Halteg, with a definite stage presence that initially draws us into this bizarre world – tellingly, it’s when he ducks out of the action for a while that our interest really wanes. Alec Walker also makes a brief but enjoyable appearance as an imaginary butler… because, yes, of course there’s an imaginary butler.

You can’t doubt that writer Jack Harrison’s script is technically formidable, with some darkly brilliant if heavily Beckett-indebted moments: “Life is short,” declares Etranger (Rik Baker). “No, it’s not,” retorts Halteg, “it goes on for ages!”  But, of course, everyone knows the beauty of Beckett is that his work, however deliciously and deliriously difficult to grasp, actually manages to communicate something desolate and truthful about our existence. Damned certainly provokes urgent questions, but they’re not the ones you want to be asking of a text: why set it in what seems like the 1930s? Why offer very little in the way of human investment? Why test your audience so severely without rewarding them with anything other than a few giggles along the way? Admirable though ambiguity can be,  it can also be a rather good excuse for saying nothing at all. Damned is either insanely avant-garde or simply incomprehensible  indulgence, and I’m leaning very decisively towards the latter.

Damned is playing at C Nova as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until 25 August. For more information and tickets, please see the Edinburgh Fringe website.