Theatre on a Long Thin Wire – The Loft, Summerhall. **

Immediately following Blind Hamlet, here is another performance without an actor. The audience enters the empty and harshly lit room where there is a mobile phone sitting on a chair. The phone rings and the audience is given instruction to relay the writer’s words to the rest. the audience encourage the shy and perhaps autistic character to emerge from his toilet cubicle and rally him to confront his fears. The show explores the ideas of social interactions, isolation and loneliness. The mechanism of having the dialogue through the phone means it has a stuttering pace and while the script provides for some interaction among ourselves, it feels distant and unengaging. There are signs of potential dramatic twists but the less than satisfying ending means it is a mere exercise in theatre and an underdeveloped one at that.