Heartbreak Hotel – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Feeling more like a work in progress than a completed show, but with oodles of charm, this mixes a lecturing approach to the biochemistry of heartbreak with sketches of interactions between female and male of the species, together with elements of singing and grade one synth (oops that’s the wrong chord!). Throw in a spectacular lighting rig transported all the way from NZ no less, and you end up with something that is really entertaining, and educational!, and with a bit more polish could be really good.

It’s pretty kooky though! With something of the Degree Show art installation about it, albeit on a grand scale, a bank of multi-coloured wrap-round LED lights enfolds the performance area, the floor of which is a pink deep pile carpet, like the inside of a living cell, which adds a nice textural base to proceedings.

At the heart of this is Kiwi actress Karin McCracken who between covers of Elvis’s Heartbreak Hotel, slowed down to a synth crawl, and a similarly elongated, but no less enjoyable, “All coming back to me now’, explains the physiological effects of break up and the very real problem of Broken Heart Syndrome on our bodies’ defences and immune systems. It is no surprise that we encounter many more sniffs, colds, flues and even cancers when we are dumped!

The sketches between lovers are simple and effective, fellow kiwi Simon Leary plays the ‘Man’ who declares, in the end, ‘I need psychic Space!’. McCracken sinks into the deep pile and the LED display lights up as an array of stars, infinite and uncaring and cold, whirling around her in a rather beautiful conclusion.

Some of the audience sniff.

It may hurt us, make us vulnerable to disease and infection, elicit vengeance filled fury or feelings of desolation. Heartbreak is a condition without a cure, of always looking back and pining for something that will never be, but without it life would be very boring indeed!

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 22^nd August 2024

North West End UK Rating: