Kindling
at Gilded Balloon Theatre (Venue 38), Edinburgh

Ravi Bali

Lynn Ferguson's new play is set on bonfire night, as one family gear up for a party on an anniversary occasion that holds a dark significance for each of them.

The banality of their lives is recounted by the only three characters we ever see on stage. The mother, father and daughter each give their individually peculiar take on life, as monologues which overlap with each other, but don't interact except for during brief moments. This leaves the audience having to piece together what the nature of their relationships, with each other and the wider world, might be.

There is the house-proud mother who sees her neighbour Mrs Patterson as a rival that she can generally feel superior to. The cynical daughter, Jennifer, who tells of her older sister's marriage to an insipid loser and of her own affair with Mr Cooper, her boss. Then there is the father who seems to talk endlessly about fireworks and their safe use, but is troubled by something else, something much darker that is only hinted at. As the play unfolds and the nature of the underlying tension becomes clearer, there is a rapid descent into desperation with an explosive conclusion.

The performance from each of the actors is very strong, but the play still leaves the audience unclear as to why they are so dysfunctional as a family. This is in part due to the minimal direct interaction between the characters, which makes it hard to see how delusional their individual views might be. There is an even more explicit denial, through the character of Jennifer, that we can understand the motives behind even people's most extreme behaviour. Watching Kindling is a frustrating but worthwhile experience.