Fringe Theatre
On the Exhale / Coriolanus Vanishes
Traverse Theatre
Neil Cooper
four stars
THE MESS of strip-lights on the ground look like discarded bullets magnified to monster-size in China Plate’s production of On the Exhale, Martin Zimmerman’s seethingly intense solo play, written in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.
It is a symbol, perhaps of the turmoil of the woman unfurling her story, a story of how an ordinary woman list her child one day to an unnecessary massacre caused directly by American gun laws, and the thing she does to help her try and understand what happened.
These things aren’t obvious, as actor Polly Frame talks is through her move from grieving mother to increasingly obsessive survivor seeking revenge.
Christopher Haydon’s production takes its grim-faced and terrifyingly pertinent subject matter and invests Zimmerman’s script with the twists and turns of a thriller.
With shootings on the increase and American laws unchanged, this is a vital dissection of loss, healing and how we all need to keep our safety catch at bay.
Private, public and secret lives are gradually unveiled in Coriolanus Vanishes, David Leddy’s remarkable solo piece for the author’s Fire Exit company. Here, Irene Allan is Chris, a power-dressed high-flyer in an international arms trade banged-up for crimes initially unknown but not too hard to spot. Over a seventy-minute confessional, Chris’ concerns flit between domestic and professional, between hard-nosed networker and proud family woman, until everything goes into freefall, and here she is, behind bars.
Originally performed by Leddy himself in 2017, here Chris is played with mercurial brilliance by Allan, whose emotions turn on a pin as she stands behind a desk on Becky Minto’s shadow-lined set, part cell, part wood-lined sanctuary. Without preaching, Leddy’s play has peeled back the skin on those in high office to prick their conscience by laying bare their all too personal pathologies in mesmerising fashion.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here