The Stage

Subway

Published Friday 14 September 2007 at 15:50 by Nuala Calvi

It’s easy to see why this latest outing from exciting young Scottish company Vanishing Point was a hit in Edinburgh this summer, scooping both a Fringe First and a Herald Angel award.

It’s a quintessential fringe show, a two hander that, while designed for a small space, manages to conjure up a whole alternative universe through startling storytelling.

It’s also set in the Scottish city, albeit at a time 20 or more years in the future, and its references to rainy landmarks made foreign by a 1984-style regime would feel even more poignant for those that had tumbled in off the festival streets.

Our protagonist Scruggs (Sandy Grierson) does some impressive on the spot walking through this darkly comic dystopia, in which vending machines tell you what you should and shouldn’t drink, doors tax you for opening them, and CCTV cameras issue smoking fines in booming voices.

The lost young man’s tale is an essentially personal one, however, centring around his relationship with a gruff and distant father, whom he has returned to see after an absence of many years.

Each moment of their tense reunion and eventual reconciliation is heightened to an almost unbearable pitch, thanks to stylish direction and the help of a live seven-piece Kosovan band, whose stirring soundtrack helps fill out what eventually becomes a rather slight narrative.

A sub-plot about a counter revolution never quite takes off, while Scrugg’s relationship with his old flame, played by the excellent Rosalind Sydney, is frustratingly cut short.

Nevertheless, Subway’s striking visual style and haunting melodies are enough to leave you looking at Edinburgh in a whole new light.

Search Amazon for Subway items Search for tickets at Ticketmaster