This Edinburgh Fringe Festival there is no denying where some of the most exciting and provocative work can be found. Summerhall burst onto the Fringe last year and is proving to be a hit again this August, hosting performance art, immersive theatre, and some of the worlds best physical theatre companies. They’re also supporting newer companies such as Theatre Corsair with their piece The Dead Memory House. Taking over a portion of the large Summerhall, this immersive piece invites the audience into the home of Sylvia, a kind and caring woman who desires children of her own. Finding comfort or love in Bea and Anne, Sylvia’s home becomes a place for dreaming, and a place for regrets.

Whether we stand around the edges of the room or find ourselves seated with the cast, The Dead Memory House makes its audience feel like the ghosts of things gone by. Like the haunting photos that hang from makeshift washing lines, our presence imposes upon the space, and provides a sense of memories fading into the walls. We’re invited to give a memory to the cast, and these are collected in a jar and stored safely away. It is only towards the end of the piece that we see the sheer volume of jars and glasses containing hundreds of memories. They line every surface and seem to burst out of every cupboard; they stand like ghosts, haunting the performers. They might be reflective memories, happy ones, but they also provide ammunition for the performers to use against each other. Memories become bullets, piercing and killing.

For the most part though, The Dead Memory House is a passive affair, bordering on a physical play, with whimsical dreamlike states. It offers a shelter from the chaos of the Fringe and the warmth of the design, which represents a house complete with beds and sofas, cabinets and coat stand, is alluring. Yet this wandering through memories and intimate stories never quite moves away from the dreamlike state it creates. We want to feel propelled and caught in the stories, we want to run away to our childhoods and dream, but instead we stand isolated against the walls. We’re ghosts of an audience, and watch silently.

*** – 3 Stars

The Dead Memory House is playing at Summerhall until 26th August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For more information and tickets, see the Edinburgh Fringe website.