Almost Everything – Alba Theatre

The number of people attending a performance at the Edinburgh Fringe is in no way indicative of the quality of the show—after all, there were only 13 people at The Last Supper. There were fewer than 25 in the audience watching ‘Almost Anything’, a modern love triangle. Despite excellent performances from the young cast, the show felt like it tried too hard to be an amalgamation of every young love story written in the last decade.

There was no information available on the writer of this new piece, featuring Becca (Lauren Barrie) and Charlie (Ben McGuinness) as students sharing a flat in modern-day London and the complications that follow the arrival of Becca’s sister Emily (Imogen Eden-Brown) to their nascent romance. I would hazard that this piece was written by someone under the age of thirty, the scenes of early student life felt authentic and the badinage, flirting and coy exploration of feelings were well delineated. However, once the piece developed into the later lives of the three characters with marriage and children, it was clear the writer lacked the lived experience to successfully translate these issues onto the stage.

There were dramaturgical issues with the timelines of the characters I would have expected to have been resolved before presentation, and it felt like far too much story was being attempted to be pushed into a single hour onstage. It would have been better served to concentrate on the storylines where the power lay, as with easily the most moving scenes involving the exploration by the two sisters of the alcoholism of their mother. The possible cycle of repetition that Becca may have been following worked well with both Barrie and Eden-Brown displaying real emotion and depth in their respective emotional states. McGuinness played Charlie with an easy charm, more convincing as cocky than as vulnerable but his character lacked agency given the tumultuous events his actions caused.

Part of the issue is that the Fringe zeitgeist is always vaguely retrospective, current shows looking to recreate the successes of the recent past; call it the ‘Fleabag’ conundrum. Whilst the writer of ‘Almost Everything’ clearly has an ear for dialogue it is much more ‘Fresh Meat’ than the ‘One Day’ it clearly yearns to be.

Reviewer: Paul Wilcox

Reviewed: 10th August 2025

North West End UK Rating: