Orphans

Family, eh?

Helen and Danny, two youngish urbanites, have just sat down to a nice romantic meal when Liam—Helen’s younger brother—bursts in, covered in blood. A kid has been badly cut up. Clearly in shock, Liam initially claims to have found him lying wounded in the street and tried to help, before the kid ran off. But as Orphans proceeds, cracks begin to appear in his story.

Orphans is essentially a story of urban, lower-middle class fear. It’s a morality tale about how our all-consuming desire to feel safe results in us turning a blind eye to evil; about how fear prevents good people from doing what is right. And worse, how it can make the stupid capable of great evil. Terrified by the violence on the streets, untrusting of the police and judicial system, Helen and Danny are powerless prisoners, trapped in their own home.

Hammering this point home, rarely will you see this year a set so poignantly meaningful as the one constructed by Garance Marneur. Innocuously appearing to be little more than two walls held up by a steel rigging as the performance begins, as things progress, the metal bars increasingly bring to mind a prison cell; further highlighting the idea that people are increasingly imprisoned by their fear of crime.

An early winner of both a Fringe First and a Herald Angel award, Orphans is already looking like the big success story of the 2009 Edinburgh festival. Written by Dennis Kelly—the man behind the acclaimed BBC series Pulling— and starring a cast chock full of hot, young talent, this was one of the most eagerly anticipated productions coming into August. That hype, it appears, was fully justified.

Read our event preview of Orpahans at Fringe Festival