Seen by Federica at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 9th of August 2024

3 stars – interesting metaphor

Amidst great confusion, a couple has to build an IKEA wardrobe. Olivia stresses out, while David doesn’t even want to read the manual. They are often interrupted by the sounds of a surrounding war.

The strife relating to the assembling of the wardrobe lets other conflicts emerge. The discrepancies in the relationship between Olivia (interpreted by Helena Harrison) and David (Philip Honeywell) have deeper roots, as the internal division within each of them. Another kind of conflict is the one bursting on the outside, where some war is taking place. Sadly, more space could have been devoted to the preparation of all these conflicts, which would have been more interesting and would have allowed for greater identification. It is also very hard to talk about war ‘in general’, but the strategies that have been chosen are definitely too ‘generic’.

The show, produced by DNA Studio (Dor Frenkel and Amit Segall) contains numerous moments of audience participation, with little task being asked from them. The process of including the audience and consequently building the fourth wall again is carried out with intelligence, such as some moments of physical theatre and sketches.

The process of furniture building becomes a metaphor and gives place to several inventive images, but it is also isolated from context, and this withdraws some of the strength these images could have. The show ends in a hymn to solidarity and resilience, but again, a bit too ‘generic’.

2nd-10th August; 2 pm

Running time: 50 minutes

Venue: Greenside @Riddle’s Court

Tickets and Info: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/rtfm-read-the-f-ing-manual

Company Website: https://www.dnastudio.live/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dnastudio.live/