1 green bottleDig beneath the surface and Nick Cassenbaum’s weird play has a great deal to say about modern life, but it is said obliquely and cryptically. Pairs of characters take it in turns to play out their own little scenarios, each unrelated to the previous and with the contextless absurdity of a Beckett play. But each scenario takes a different facet of a digital native existence and points out its futility.

At first there are only two people on stage, a writer and a man in a tux with a paper bag over his head. Another tuxedo-ed person joins and the two  start arguing about who has more talent. One of them tap dances, the other tries to tell a joke. There is a writer in a tracksuit brandishing a Bic biro and taking selfies. He struggles to find the right words to put on paper, unable to write decent similes. As a comment, perhaps, on our increasing inability to communicate in person, there is a couple who only discuss their interior design choices. Two others fight over a hat that makes them feel special.

All of these characters issue forth with oodles of dialogue, but none of them actually says anything. There is a long, slow monologue about bacon from a creepy butcher, a couple who insist they are deeply in love but cannot really offer much to explain why.

Meanwhile a bored voice over the speakers gives little soundbites, “Rosanna is not sure about mobile banking”, “Ollie changed his profile picture”. It is these that allow the audience to understand what message the play is trying to get across, that this is about loneliness and communication – otherwise it would seem like a random collection of meaningless words.

By the end the on-stage writer has started to write the characters that are on stage with him, and sometimes they pre-empt what he is going to write, effectively speaking their lines before he has written them.

Pelican’s Briefs are a diverse group of performers, each inhabiting these ephemeral, half-formed characters. Cassenbaum has clearly created a complex piece with a message that is struggling to force its way out through the oddity.

1 Green Bottle is at C cubed (Venue 16) until 9th August. For more information and tickets visit the EdFringe website.