#16 Waiting For It

Children's Show ( Clown, Family, Physical Theatre ) Grassmarket 1, Sweet Grassmarket

Company Wild Dandelions, Andrea Spisto and Alice Motta, doing crazyball physical theatre for the clueless. A non-show that feels like a pair of desperate babysitters trying to keep unruly toddlers from getting out of hand. All friendly faces, silly expressions, and strange sounds and movements.

Waiting For It is a story about two synthetic creatures from the future/space on a mission to find something that cannot be synthesised/simulated for an emphemeral omniscient other. A grand quest, a race against the clock, to find something authentic, specific to life, perhaps? That elusive life force that humans have.

The story is way too much for the two to handle, and their mime and storytelling antics are dreadfully insufficient to carry the story. The result is an incoherent mess.

A little Latin American rhythm and colour from this energetic pair of young actors could go far, but the show barely lifts off. A few sequences confirm that the two have dance, and a good bit of song, too, but unfortunately this narrative shambles destroys any hope of successful storytelling.

Some audience interaction in Spanish/Portuguese, for the initiated. The five-year-olds were entertained by fluffy cotton filler puppetry and unconvincing mime, but I claim that nobody could really follow the action, though some played along seemingly from pity.

Skip this dismal lowest-quality production.