The Woman in The Box – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall
Dim lighting and rumbling, auspicious music lure you into the auditorium. On stage, a simple contraption of scaffold poles resembles a glass box. Within it, a woman stands still and silent. The black box theatre of the modern Edinburgh Fringe is notoriously difficult to build any real atmosphere in, particularly when there is noise spill to contend with, but Fragments Theatre Group achieve a magical sense of ambience in the opening moments of this play. The first few minutes are exceptionally well designed theatre. Where the play is about to go next intrigues.
The woman is the centerpiece of an art gallery. After the guests have left, she talks to the cleaner attending to the gallery. The glass is buffed but her internal fingerprints remain. Cue The Manager, a sterile characte...