Tuesday, August 05, 2008

"Shafted" - Edinburgh Fringe 2008

"Shafted" has a strong premise - 3 men are in a lift which breaks down but only two leave alive. Who killed Theo... and why?

The cast of three make a decent effort to bring the piece to life but the script is sadly beyond redemption. The plot could be straight from a US daytime soap - the history that is revealed between the characters make their initially cordial behaviour rather unbelievable. While the dialogue has some sharp moments, it's often terribly clunky featuring excessive repetition of phrases and at times simply goes round in circles. I got the feeling there was a final revelation at the end but it wasn't sufficiently conveyed for us to 'get it'. The staging doesn't do the show any favours either, with many seats in the small venue suffering from a considerably restricted view of much of the action.

It's a nice concept with some good work by the cast but at the end of the day the script just isn't satisfactory.

Shafted runs at Rocket @ Roxburghe Hotel until 25th (not 17th) at 2:40 pm