26/08/19

Zoo Southside, Edinburgh

And so here it is: our final show of Edfringe 2019. And for Bouquets and Brickbats, it’s Slam Theatre’s latest production. We really don’t know what to expect from this, but the presence of a string quartet on stage is promising. How To Use a Washing Machine is a new musical, and, as it turns out, a fairly unusual one.

It’s the story of James (Max Cadman) and Cass (Amelye Moulton), two disaffected siblings called back to the home they grew up in because their parents are going through a marriage breakup. They are required to help put things in order, to sort through the detritus of their childhoods, so they can decide what to keep and what to dump. Max is a successful banker, who has sacrificed his youthful dreams of being a dancer to make a repectable living. Cass hasn’t quite given up on her artistic ambitions and is leading a rather less comfortable existence in a rundown flat in London. The two have respective axes to grind. They have fallen out in the past, but neither of them is quite prepared to take the blame for the rift.

There’s much about this production that I like: the urgent, strident rhythms of the music by Joe Davis, the acerbic lyrics by Georgie Botham, and the performances of the two young leads are also top notch. Narratively though, the story feels a little one-note. After a powerful opening section, which depicts the siblings’ travails as they travel to the  parental home during adverse weather conditions, the middle stretch feels as though it needs to progress a little more than it actually does. It seems to take Max and Cassie an age to settle their differences.

Furthermore, though we’re told that the warring parents are somewhere else in the house, arguing with each other, there really isn’t much sense of their presence in this production. I want to have a better picture of them.

The piece regains its momentum in the final third, and goes out on a rousing note, with a reprise of the memorable opening song. How To Use a Washing Machine makes a unusual culmination to Edfringe 2019 and, ultimately, that’s what this festival is all about.

Anyhow, it’s been emotional – and now we need to get some sleep.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney