Hex

THEATRE
Hex
Hill Street Theatre (Venue 41)
3 stars ***

IF YOU’RE looking for a well-turned-out, laugh-a-minute late-evening sitcom to send you home happy after a day on the Fringe, then you could do much worse than show up at Hill Street for this latest show from Edinburgh’s startlingly gifted young company, Strangetown. Written by Tim Primrose (who also directs) with Sam Suggs, Hex is a deft 50-minute joke of a play that makes no claim to great substance or deeper meaning. Toby and Siobhan are a slightly creepy young married couple whose perfectly-furnished home harbours a Shop-Of-Horrors-type secret; Gwen is a new-age therapist who arrives to try and deal with the problem, along with her hilariously tact-free sidekick and lover, a peculiar girl known as Six.

What’s striking about the show, though, is its rare combination of near-perfect dramatic structure and pitch-perfect performance, with all four young actors achieving some superb, deadpan comic timing, and just the right note of slightly desperate hyper-realism, shading into black farce. There are plenty of good one-line jokes, and an all-round demonstration of theatrical skill that promises great things for this company’s future; and if I tell you that after this show, you’ll never feel quite the same again about the ubiquitous “sofa play” set in someone’s living room, I’m not betraying enough of the plot to spoil the fun.

Joyce McMillan
Until 29 August
p. 269

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