Bin Heid

Aug 18 2016 | By Linus West More

Breakfast Plays: Tech Will Tear Us Apart (?) – Bin Heid

★★★☆☆ Easy viewing

Traverse (Venue 15): Tue 16 – Sun 28 Aug 2016
Review by Linus West

Bin Heid, the second show of this year’s Traverse Breakfast Plays, provides easy-on-the-brain, but nonetheless witty, entertainment – perfect for an early morning viewing.

One of four Traverse Associate Artists handed the stimulus and title of ‘Tech Will Tear Us Apart’, Morna Pearson has crafted a simple yet original script for everyone to chuckle along to.

However, it does this while still planting a few light seeds of thought about what technological advancement means for the future.

Portrayed with bang-on comic timing and accuracy by Molly Innes, Jean has downed one, two, maybe five too many beers, and hence been thrown out the karaoke bar.

After unsuccessfully attempting to wrestle back inside past the bouncers, she finally becomes aware of her companion in the alleyway – a man with his head stuck in a bin.

Through the story this man has to tell, after some difficulties in communication, the audience is made to think about just where all this technology surrounding them is leading the human race.

Keith MacPherson delivers as good a performance of a confused man with his head stuck in a bin as anyone can, making for easy viewing.

Light laugh

The script starts off strong in the first ten minutes or so, although the plot more or less stands still for the next while. With nothing much happening, other than a constant stream of comic stories from the gradually sobering Jean, they are at risk of letting the audience’s attention drift off in the early hours, and heat of the venue.

This edition of the Traverse’s annual series of breakfast plays knows what context it’s operating in. Faced with a crowd of half-awake brains, it doesn’t try to do anything massive. It simply starts the audience off with a light laugh, provokes questions and pleasant experience. That’s exactly what it should do,

Running time 45 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre, Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED (Venue 15)
Wed 17, Sun 21, Fri 26 August 2016
Mornings: 9am.
Traverse Website: http://www.traverse.co.uk
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