Crazy Glue

• Barry Cooper
• 1 August 2014

This article is from 2014.

Physical theatre piece portraying the highs and lows of marriage, staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Taking inspiration from the short story by Etgar Keret, Crazy Glue shows the ups and downs of life with Husband (Bradley Wayne Smith) and Wife (Filipa Tomas). This physical theatre piece has no spoken dialogue and instead relies on the actors’ mime skills and a handful of sound effects, many coming from the performers themselves.

Starting with their expertly timed morning ritual, which becomes a rolling motif, the play details the highlights of marriage – the roller-coaster proposal, the wedding day and even the preparation for a new arrival. All of this comes with a 1920s soundtrack from the oft argued over (but never present) radio.

The subtlety of the actors’ physicality raises laughs and sighs, but only really comes into its own when subtle tonal shifts are needed to change the tempo after a crisis. Both leads draw out the confusions of marriage with the merest of movements and then up the ante in the third act as things spiral out of control, veering from heart-tearing tragedy to cartoonish slapstick chaos, and finally to an appropriately sticky ending.

Assembly Roxy, 0131 623 3030, until 25 Aug, £7--£11.