Mush and Me @ Underbelly

Nancy Collective enrich this year’s Edinburgh Fringe with a religioromantic comedy, adding a liberal sprinkling of friendly faith bashing. Mush and Me makes the point that, while religion may play a diminishing role in the public arena, it can nevertheless wreak havoc with believers’ love lives. Short sound bites taken from interviews are played during set changes to emphasise the enduring realism of faith based relationship woes. The voice of a 26-year old woman wonders: '6 million Jews in the world, why couldn’t I find just one?'

With minimal set design, the play is a heavily text based one, to the extent that the visually most dramatic scene is one in which the two characters violently bite into a bacon butty. The strongest moments are those of witty banter between the two lovers, whereas the writing of the heavier scenes can make them feel strained and overacted. But then finding the right amount of pathos for a one-sided dialogue with one’s God cannot be an easy feat. As the title suggests, Mush’s character is a bit of an extra, mainly acting as a perfectly charming and reliable counter point in the protagonist’s coming of age drama. As the character is portrayed with a rakish charm, one cannot help but think Mush could maybe do better for himself. Much in the same way, the play has promising moments, but fails to completely win the audience’s heart.