Scotland

Tarmac Lullaby – The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

Part of the five-day long Edinburgh Horror Festival, at The Banshee Labyrinth just off Edinburgh’s ghostly Royal Mile. A suitably dark and stormy night saw me head out for a Labyrinthine hat trick of horror.

First up, written by Daniel Orejon for his theatre company Crested Fools, this one-woman show looses its way a little by being way too wordy for its own good. Often the simplest stories told well work out the best. A flow chart showing all of the characters featured in the stories and their relationships would have been handy.

A chance meeting in a car park brings together two old schoolteacher friends, and soon they are recounting stories from the past, but these are not cosy school stories, these are tales of blood-weeping daughters, abusive relationships, a foul-mouthed mother chained by gossamer threads to her tv, of murder and possession.

The narrator explains that her stories are like ‘shedding my skin and seeing the tender red underneath, and the ‘the pen just takes the reigns and goes wherever it want or needs’.

Whilst the acting is solid by Erin Elkin, and the writing by Orejon is expressive and effective in each of the set pieces, there is a lack of connection and no overarching allegorical storyline that can bring this to a satisfactory tied-up conclusion.

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 26th October 2023

North West End UK Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Greg Holstead

Recent Posts

HadesTown Teen Edition – The Forum Theatre

This is another production at which NK excels, gathering a number of extremely talented young…

5 hours ago

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts – Liverpool Playhouse

Twists, turns, murder and mystery sound like your kind of evening? If so, join the…

2 days ago

Drawing The Italian Renaissance – King’s Gallery, Holyrood Palace

This is an excellent exhibition, inspiring, beautifully curated, and quietly revelatory. Drawing the Italian Renaissance…

2 days ago

Rocky Horror Show – Sheffield Lyceum

Sheffield waited with antici……….pation and at last the Rocky Horror Show crash landed into the…

2 days ago

Cinderella – Waterside Arts

Sale Nomads are back at Waterside Arts with their annual post Christmas pantomime.  This year…

4 days ago

Ghost In Your Ear – Hampstead Theatre

A Ghost In Your Ear is set in a recording studio, where an actor, George,…

4 days ago