Just is just awful. There’s no other way to say it. It’s like sitting through a GCSE drama performance that might get a B.

Just is more a ridiculous than an absurdist play. Either the themes are blurry or they’re convoluting the obvious theme of justice. Victoria (Sarah Howey) stumbles upon a dead body, the policeman Arthur (Rob Tressler) assumes she killed them, and a blind-folded old woman, Mrs Wright (Harriet Simmonds) is sure they both did because she is apparently the long arm of the law. Then she changes her mind because Arthur shops at Tesco so couldn’t possibly be guilty. Apparently Ali Smith’s play is about the perversion of justice but it all comes across as rather silly. We all know Victoria’s innocent, so wasting an hour discussing it is pointless. Still we go through the motions of standing around and chatting with the accused murderer, handcuffing Arthur and Victoria together… but not to anything so they can just waltz about the stage, and even trying them by jury. Oh and of course we can’t forget the group of townspeople who come and go to admire a pot plant and not take the bus, but wait for it. Oh but are they forgettable.

Now Smith’s verse could actually be brilliant, but this young group of actors most definitely don’t have the timing for it. It needs to be drilled to get it rhythmically confident and absolutely together. Director John Pease appears to have been very lazy with his cast. I wouldn’t say it’s all their fault though, because herein lies the second problem with the script: lack of character. The only character with any character is Arthur, the stereotypically stupid policeman. Otherwise, there is nothing individual about the characters themselves, however many blindfolds or apples you throw at them to make them appear interesting.

Sadly this isn’t a group of actors ready for the Fringe. Everybody still feels forced and stuck in bad habits like travelling around the stage too much or not projecting their lines. They have potential: Tressler is sweet and has comic timing, and with a blindfold, a lot of the focus lays upon Simmonds’ tone which is inventive. But their needs to be a discipline in the acting method, and then the characters need to actually be inhabited. Absurd play or not, there must be some suspension of disbelief.

It would be interesting to see this company in a year’s time, with a more staid and imaginative directorial influence. But the play itself I hope never to see again. Near the end of the play, Victoria suddenly realises she’s in a play and proclaims ‘we’re in a bad play!’ Well that’s just asking for it, isn’t it? They said it, not me.

* – 1 Star

Just is playing at C eca until 18 August as part of the Edinburgh Festival.