Fresh from Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe with a coveted Fringe First award, Futureproof runs at the Rep for a week.
It’s the Dundee theatre’s first collaboration with The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and showcases a new piece of work by Irish playwright Lynda Radley.
Colin Richmond’s wonderful set, which harks back to the travelling shows and circuses of the past, is a perfect frame for the impressive freaks of Riley’s Odditorium in their weird and wonderful costumes.
The imagination and make-up is to be applauded especially the conjoined twins (played by the charming duo Ashley Smith and Nicola Roy) and the ever-entertaining Robert Paterson as Tiny, the world’s fattest man.
Set in a society obsessed by beauty and normality, where laws against freak shows and other such oddities exist, the members of Riley’s Odditorium are starving and Riley himself (John Buick) must find a way to make it acceptable for people to look again and in doing so, make them profitable.
As Riley puts it, God’s miracles have transformed into nature’s aberrations and when it emerges that becoming “un-strange” might be the best way to save the show and its performers, a crisis ensues.
It is difficult to like Riley, who must make difficult decisions in order to save his family.
The use of silent film show reels and sign language between certain characters adds dimension and injects a little bit of humour to the production.
At the end, one audience member commented to another: “A thoughtful ending not a happy ending.” And why not? Futureproof is a play that not only entertains, it makes you think.Futureproof runs at Dundee Rep Theatre (link) until September 10.Photo Dundee Rep / Douglas McBride.