Those of us who can remember the days when the Fringe was a hotbed of ideas where the talents of a wide variety of playwrights, actors, dancers and musicians were not outnumbered by the seething mass of performers who have turned it into a comedy festival, may long for those times.
These various talents are, of course, still there. You just have to look a bit harder to find them.
Which brings us to A Giant on the Bridge. Perhaps best described as gig theatre, it crosses various musical genres with folk tale and melds it all into a powerful depiction of the difficulties facing not only those being released from prison, but those friends and families whose lives have also been affected by the incarceration of a loved one.
Devised by Jo Mango and award-winning Scottish theatre-maker Liam Hurley (Fringe First Winner with Dispatches From The Red Dress; Wind Resistance) with research by Dr Phil Crockett Thomas, a Lecturer in Criminology in Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology at the University of Stirling. A Giant on the Bridge has been developed through the work of the Distant Voices Community, a research project incorporating people from all aspects of the criminal justice system, funded by the ESRC.
Performed by Jo Mango (Dr Jo Collinson Scott), Solareye (Dr Dave Hook), Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbot, Kim Grant and Louise McCraw, it chronicles the events over the last few days of D’s year in jail for handling stolen goods. As well as D himself, it examines the effect on his young daughter, his twin sister who has been looking after the child, a woman prison visitor who helps inmates write letters – to loved ones, lawyers, whatever they need, and a musician whose band gives songwriting workshops to those inside.
The cast are seated in a semicircle in a carpeted space crowded with armchairs, plants and stuffed animals – the busy nature of this giving a stark contrast to the sparse nature of the décor in a prison cell. They take turn in moving centre stage to tell their tales as the story progresses, returning to their stations to play the songs that drive the narrative forward.
The diversity of the musical genres involved – from folky songwriter, to indie, to rap – could have resulted in a less than coherent whole, but instead it gels beautifully.
I doubt very much that I’ll see anything at the Fringe this year that will outshine this. Go and see it, it will give you food for thought, and give your heart a lift.
Jim Welsh
Radio Summerhall Arts 