Canadian company Catalyst raised the temperature at the Edinburgh fringe a couple of years ago with this show inspired by Electra, a cool story of murder and matricide in the icy Canadian wastelands. But, as is so often the case, what was hailed as great in the critical fury of Edinburgh now looks only good in the cold light of day.
Jonathan Christenson and Joey Tremblay's play, which they also direct, may be a case of style over substance - but the style is quite something. Against four towering columns of ice and in front of the frozen tombs of her pioneering forebears (including her dead dad, Buster), Pootsie recounts how her family came to be regarded as the guardians of the great white north, and winter's first family.
But all is not well in the house of Plunket, as is evident by the red stain spreading over the columns of ice. Buster's mysterious death - he was found in the septic tank with a bullet through his brain - has already set tongues wagging. Now Buster's widow, Belle, a hot-blooded creature who hates the frozen north, has returned from her winter sojourn in warmer climes with a new lover in tow, Uncle Del.
Uncle Del has plans to melt the Plunket palace and create a lagoon in a new development where it will be perpetual summer. But to proceed with his dastardly plans, he and Belle have to win over Pootsie, and, more importantly, her brother Kirbus, a cowardly, callow but loving youth of somewhat arrested development, who is now head of the house of Plunket. Kirbus's signature is crucial.
The piece is never less than entertaining, and brilliantly creates its own weird, isolated world, peopled by the oddball, orange-haired Plunket siblings and the treacherous cartoon villains Belle and Del, who appear to be shaping up to become Ma and Pa Ubu. The acting is impeccable and the sound design is terrific too, dripping atmosphere as the Plunkets approach meltdown. But however well you do it, camp is a pretty limiting style to choose and, after 90 minutes, the lack of variety becomes wearing. It also militates against any real emotional involvement with the story or the characters. The evening is always a tease but never a tragedy. In the end, Catalyst have done what they've done really well - I only wish that they had attempted to do rather more.
Until April 15. Box office: 020-7609 1800. The production then tours to Frome, Stockton and Glasgow.
