Review: MANikin, Edfringe 

Venue 506: The Wee Red Bar

Due to an incapacity, today’s performance of MANikan was given by Sands Sterling, stepping in script in hand, yet utterly brilliant – a superb storyteller. Delivering the monologue with energetic humour, humanity and passion, he shares with us the struggles of Fraser, an obese working class man.

Nathan Scott Dunn‘s script crafts a careful, comprehensive development. We first meet Fraser as a baby, his diabetic mother resigned to popping out an 11lb child, common for someone with her condition. He’s a jolly wee chappie, who enjoys playing rugby with his friend Jack, and even as we journey with him as he ages and troubles overwhelm him, the character retains a likeableness and humanity that remind us of his lost potential: what he could have been if obesity hadn’t dominated his life.

The set of issues that surround Fraser are complex and often socially unrecognised. Here, key pressures that lead to physical obesity and fuel mental health issues are identified. Fraser is a victim of his social upbringing, a world where food and love are transactional – easy hits for comfort when time and money are lacking. Fatness leads to bullying, leading to leaving school early, a lack of choices in life and ill health. We learn how societal expectations of the perfect body create dysmorphia, not only for young women but for men, and witness how this man’s self-worth is sucked from him as societal norms disregard the human within the body, causing him to withdraw from social interactions.

The characterisations throughout are wonderfully recognisable and rounded. Sterling slickly shifts between roles, adopting a variety of voices and using simple costumes for props. And the use of Scots dialect is inspired: it feeds into the social setting, making this pressing topic accessible to a wider audience than your conventional theatregoing crowd, whilst also providing laughter through some hilarious language and descriptions.

In the intimate Wee Red Bar, shifting lighting states are used to starkly suggest the severity of mental crisis and physical shutdown. Meanwhile, the scenes are punctuated with a terrific soundtrack that keeps the pace punchy, treating us to clips from Meatloaf and Nicki Minaj.

Fraser is an everyman, and this is a cyclical crisis. At the end of the play, in his grief he becomes rightfully angry. There is an entire world working against him, and his distress is a call to arms for change, but there is still a glimmer of hope for the future, as he emerges from the dark to change his life. And the audience also leave empowered by the offer of information and support made available from the obesity charity who have shared in the development of the play.

This is an excellent, considered production that speaks unspoken truths in a brilliantly accessible format.  Go for the comedy, go for the drama – but go and hear what is being said.

Written by: Nathan Scott Dunn
Produced by: Saltire Sky Theatre

MANikin runs at The Wee Red Bar as part of Edfringe until 25th August. Further information and booking are available here.