So it Goes @ Underbelly

Even at the Edinburgh Fringe, it is rare for a performer and her audience to tear up together. So when it happens in On the Run’s pretty as a picture production So It Goes, it says a lot about the piece, which can be uncomfortably personal but leaves ample space to be meaningful for the audience.

The autobiographical play deals with the death of a father and at times it has the spectator wondering whether grief counselling would be a more appropriate setting for the story than a Fringe production. Ultimately, however, On the Run prove that the line between the two may be so fine as to be non-existent, and the piece becomes a thing of both visual and narrative beauty as well as a therapeutic tool.

Silence plays a big part in the show, and it has actors write lines on whiteboards worn around their necks, displaying their admirable skill in writing up side down. The silence also adds gravitas and friction, without allowing the play to become oppressively heavy, due to a lightness of stage design, physical theatre sequences and coy bits of humour.