Tuesday, August 05, 2008

"Time Bomb" - Edinburgh Fringe 2008

It's 2017 and Parliament is debating the potential use of nuclear weapons against Iran. The Clarke family have been tied to politics and the weapons programme for the last 50 years. Secrets are about to be revealed with implications for the family... and the country. It was certainly enough to catch my attention in the Fringe Programme, and I'd since seen a snippet or two elsewhere suggesting it was worth seeing.

Perhaps it's the dining room setting and the wallpaper but this screams that we are in safe BBC sitcom territory here - but without the laughs. The performances are all decent enough but the narrative is cluttered with excess characters and would have benefited from being cut down to leave only four - father, daughter, son, son's girlfriend.
It makes it's political argument well but it gets swamped amongst the bickering between characters and the additional background we are given about the characters.

Perhaps I'm being unfair after having high hopes for this. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad show - it's just didn't live up to expectation.

Time Bomb runs at Sweet Teviot Place at 3pm until the 10th August