Nation – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Within the womb-like space that is The Roundhouse, at Summerhall, one of my favs in the scrum that is the Fringe, magic can happen. Nation might have been written for this space, and this time.

It may not be the kind of launch pad writer and performer Sam Ward would have wanted, but the spate of xenophobic far-right riots sweeping the UK makes this story chilling pertinent.

Ward welcomes us into the tent and asks us to exist in the moment, right now you are an audience listening to a storyteller. Right now, I’m a postman, on a High Street of an ordinary town.

We are asked to imagine the ordinary town, not too big, not too small, and the ordinary people that inhabit it. The Butcher, the Baker, the Pilates Instructor, Ward points at people in the audience, assigning identities, giving them agency, culpability, whether they like it or not.

Nothing unexpected ever happens in the ordinary town until, one day it does. It started when the stranger came to town. It started slowly at first, little things, but then gathered pace, parts of the town start to disappear completely until the town that they thought they all knew became unrecognisable. No one is really surprised when the lifeless and bloodied body of the ‘stranger’ is found. But can normality ever return?

The community (the audience) must face up to the reality of their small town prejudices and hidden agendas and accept their roles, but maybe some have more to say than others…?

Ward points to the rips in the fabric of our own little universe and asks important questions about our part in it.

Brilliantly acted, with an intensity and purpose that never wavers, and ensures everyone present sits up and takes notice. Attitudes to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants must change; the place is here and the time is now.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 7th August 2024

North West End UK Rating:

Running time – 1hr