"And Then He Said..."

Small-time theatre company In A Pickle are asking audiences not to judge a book by its cover. “And Then He Said…”, their series of vignettes about brief encounters takes a closer look at the many strangers who cross our path and reveals them to be much more than meets the eye. There is no music, and props and costumes are minimal. This serves not to allow the show’s simple truth to speak for itself but rather to add to the underlying feeling that this is an amateur show.

Not to say that amateur theatre has no place in the Fringe, but this haplessly unoriginal show appears to strive neither to entertain nor move audiences. The result is a succession of gormless skits consisting of meetings between trite characters ranging from a hobo and a Sloaney to a spiritual guru and a geeky shop assistant.

The concept of observing the lives of ordinary people and the banality of life does not legitimise what is, frankly, dull, irksome material. The stories reveal little of what’s under the surface of the characters. The dialogue too often lacks depth, and is executed without the vim and vigour needed to propel the show through the seemingly never-ending sequence of witless vignettes.

That some of the lines are improvised does nothing to inject the cast’s at best adequate performances with spark or spontaneity. This is more community arts centre than major cultural festival.