SLUGS @ Summerhall
Oozing with humanity and powered by sheer chaos, Sam Kruger and S. E. Grummett offer an impish and eccentric antidote to the horrors of modern life
In this modern age, characterised by a constant stream of horrors regurgitated into our gaping mouths by the mother birds that are our phones, SLUGS comes to us as a cathartic quest for ‘nothing.’ But what is this mysterious ‘nothing’?
For performers Sam Kruger and S. E. Grummett, the epitome of ‘nothing’ is the humble slug. Slimy, shapeless, barely sentient, they are something we can all aspire to. Indeed, when overwhelmed by the ‘something-ness’ of it all, one should follow in the duo’s footsteps and make like a slug. It's the perfect form of meditation for a desperate modern age.
SLUGS starts off at a breakneck pace and only seems to get faster, not to mention wilder. From bass-booming techno tunes at home in the darkness of the queerest club you know, to stream-of-consciousness puppet shows performed via live camera feed, Kruger and Grummett have something for everyone. But it’s these very ‘somethings’ that they’re trying so desperately to outrun in the first place. Does a gun become a friendly puppet when you put googly eyes on it? Is it a something, or a nothing? The show’s founding paradox is that, by their very rejection of the world’s myriad issues, the two only cement them further.
What’s perhaps most comforting amid the growing existentialism that threatens to overtake the performance (and, indeed, the world) is the delicious chemistry between Kruger and Grummett. Impish and eccentric, they are truly charming performers, packed full of weird and wacky ideas that they’ll do anything – and we do mean anything – to realise on stage. Occasionally, though, they need the harsh words of Joni Mitchell in puppet form to bring them back down to earth.
It’s at these plainer moments where the humanity really seems to ooze out of the pair, bringing a surprisingly down-to-earth poignancy to a show that constantly strives to be out-of-this-world. No matter what we do, every ‘nothing’ becomes a ‘something’ – we're just glad these two decided to make something this Fringe.
SLUGS, Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre), until 24 Aug, 9.15pm, £14.50-17