Crush at Fringe Fest: Review

“Turn the other cheek?” scoffs the female protagonist of Paul Charlton’s new drama. “Jesus obviously never found his wife chatting to Judas on Facebook....” It’s one of many darkly comic moments in this affecting study of a marriage long devoid of passion, and of the disruptive impact of the internet on modern relationships.

Charlton won a Fringe First award for his 2003 debut Love, Sex and Cider, and this second Edinburgh offering saw him repeat the feat. On this evidence, the gong was deserved: an intelligent script alternates slickly between monologues from Sam, unable to restrain an online obsession with a girl who looks like his wife once did; and the wife herself, pouring out a mixture of defiance and anguish at her spouse’s waning interest, while frantically working off calories on an exercise bike.

There are weak moments nonetheless: a dream soliloquy about a pride of lions is awkwardly incongruous, and Sam’s absurd decision to bet his house on a football match is too startlingly abrupt to be convincing. It’s the acting that really impresses: switching instantaneously between warmly amusing social observations and furious, red-faced self-loathing, Neil Grainger gives a fine portrayal of a man unable to refrain from betraying the woman he loves.

There’s an equally strong performance from Claire Dargo, her seething undercurrent of emotional despair masked by a veil of brash, wry humour that slips all too often. As she delivers her anguished monologue, her husband remains in a darkened portion of the stage, transfixed by his computer screen – a heartrending vignette of the isolation left by stale romance.