Many shows now treat Edinburgh as a stop on a tour – several 2015 attractions, including Juliette Binoche’s Antigone, have already been seen elsewhere – but a lecture hall at the city’s university boasts a world premiere by one of Britain’s most successful dramatists.
After a sensational mid-80s debut with Road at the Royal Court, Jim Cartwright graduated to the National theatre for Bed and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, the latter having a long commercial and cinematic afterlife. Screenwriting commitments have recently made his theatre pieces intermittent, but RAZ shows what we’ve been missing.
The lights rise arrestingly on a young man naked except for tanning-salon goggles and a pair of red briefs with a Superman logo on the pouch. It’s Friday night and Shane, a young truck-driver, is topping up his bronze before reporting to us on a night of booze and drugs in pubs and clubs with Robo, Micksy and Sparky, whose pockets rattle with Viagra as well as ecstasy in case they get a nod from local ladies Mindy, Skoll and Fluff.
This offstage cast-list – and others including a Welsh cabbie and Shane’s mum – are brought to life by the writer’s ear for telling tics of speech and the interpretative elasticity of the charismatic actor, James Cartwright, the playwright’s son.
Some of the social details – such as a young woman crouching eating takeaway curry in the street while a man has sex with her from behind – are of the kind cited by tabloid newspapers as evidence of social breakdown, but both Cartwrights are more sympathetic in presenting the weekend desperation to escape from reality. A sound composition by Ben and Max Ringham, featuring exaggerated gulps, belches and car engines, thrums with Shane’s raddled perspective.
Although I worry about the extent to which monologues are becoming the default form on the Fringe, this is as singular a solo show as you could see. A large and raucous young audience, some seeming as tanked-up as the character, rightly laughed and roared approval. Cartwright is one of a small group of northern dramatists – along with Lee Hall and John Godber – who can write plays that are loved by people who don’t necessarily like theatre. This clever, funny riff has the feel of another crossover work, short enough at 50 minutes to be fitted into a night out encompassing other activities.
• At Assembly George Square Studios until 31 August. Box office: 0131 623 3030.
