YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2013 2/5 Reviews ED2013 Theatre Reviews
Children Of Mine (Jermin Productions)
By Holly Sharp | Published on Monday 12 August 2013
An ambitious retelling of the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster, ‘Children of Mine’ has great aspirations but is sadly lacking in nuance and coherence. The performance obliterates the delicate balance between buffoonery and tragedy and ultimately lacks subtlety. In aiming to demonstrate the suddenness of disaster, the show starts by groping for laughs with ludicrous, grotesque caricatures before plunging into screaming, grief and tears. Choral speaking, jumbled interludes of movement and odd repetitive motifs do little but blur words and detract from the gravity of the subject matter. There are moments that move you, but overall this show needs to think more about the lives it’s commemorating and less about desperately trying to force a reaction.
Venue 13, until 24 Aug (not 12), 2.45pm.
tw rating 2/5 | [Holly Sharp]
