If there is one company well suited to adapting to the Covid pandemic it is Grid Iron. The Edinburgh specialist in site-responsive theatre is never seen in the same place twice. Inviting us to a woodland corner where we sit on socially distanced tree stumps is the kind of thing it would have done anyway.
Here, in the grounds of a National Trust for Scotland property, the pretext is Doppler, a satirical novel by Norwegian writer Erlend Loe. Published in 2004, it’s about a man having a mid-life crisis prompted by the death of his father. Packing in the frictions of family life, he opts to live in a tent.
The gentle irony is that, even after learning to live off the land, he continues to be plagued by other people. Although it finds one note and sticks to it, the story has an offbeat charm. Here in the woods, six miles from the heart of the Edinburgh fringe, the production by Ben Harrison reflects the tension between our impulse to go back to nature and our absorption into consumerist life.
In the role of Doppler, Keith Fleming is as driven as he is misanthropic. To his mind, the logic of his escape is self-evident. Without people he can live in peace. It’s hard to know whether to be frightened or impressed by his single-mindedness, but we laugh at his exasperation when things fail to go to plan.
It’s a tremendous performance, matched by a lovely set of cameos by Sean Hay and Chloe-Ann Tylor (variously a baby elk, a stroppy teenager and a displeased wife), set to a suitably organic Foley soundtrack performed by Nik Paget-Tomlinson.
At Newhailes House, Musselburgh, until 23 August.
