Testament, ZOO Charteris – Aviary – Review

Pros: The director conveys a consistent message using sound, lighting and movement.

Cons: The topical existential conflicts within the piece could be expanded.

With Max’s untreated head injury quickly worsening, his brother Chris (William Shackleton) – who was also in the car the night of the incident – is called upon to make a crucial decision, which involves compromising his good reputation to save his brother’s life.

Thanks to Sam Edmunds and William Patrick Harrison’s fruitful collaboration, the six members of the cast cover multiple roles with polished choreography and strong individual performances. There are some stunning visual effects that rely on a solid framework of lighting and originally electronic soundscapes. A standout moment is the opening scene in which Max’s car smashes into pieces to reappear, after a fluid collective movement, transformed into his hospital bed.

Capitalising on the quality of the writing and the smoothness of this piece, the creatives could have dug much deeper into the existential implications of their topical conflicts. Questioning brotherhood, love and the innate ability to overcome grief, they could have focused their attention on the challenges of choosing someone else’s welfare over of their own, or on the slow process of recovery from trauma.

Overall, this is an accomplished work, whose absurdist and apocalyptic nature is representative of the current visual culture and popular taste for chemically-induced psychedelic imagery. Watch out for a particularly well-crafted speech with rhyming and tempo that showcases Edmunds’s writing talent at its best.

Author: Sam Edmunds
Directors: Sam Edmunds and William Patrick Harrison
Producer: Chalk Line
Box Office: 0131 662 6892
Booking Link: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/testament
Booking Until: 27 August 2018