Four strangers survive the end of the world and end up stranded in a swan pedalo. Together, they try to piece together what life was like in the old world and what it could be in the new. Weird, wacky and often wonderful, Dugout’s new oddball comedy is an enjoyable hour of musing during a biblical apocalypse.
There’s a lot of fun to be had here, which is a refreshing thing to be able to say about a play set in an apocalypse.
With an otherworldly soundscape and loose structure, comprised of beautiful a Capella and utter randomness, including audience baptism, Swansong is an unusual piece of theatre that’s brilliantly executed. The characters are equal parts hilarious and obnoxious stereotypes, as they’re meant to be. There’s a spiritual hippy who copes by meditating and speaking poetry, there’s a public school knobish toff, oddly the most likable of the bunch, (thanks to a hilarious performance from Ed MacArthur) a highly proactive action girl and a grumpy nihilist, somewhat satisfied that it’s all over but moping that he didn’t die too. There’s something slightly Pirandello about the whole thing; wacky and of another genre, ponderous and unpredictable. It works quirky wonders.
If you’re looking for something rather alternative, which obviously you are, because you’re at the Fringe and reading a review about Dugout’s new show, then there’s a lot of fun to be had here, which is a refreshing thing to be able to say about a play set in an apocalypse.
