01/05/25

Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh

Smiff (William Osbon) and Willow (Raphaella Hawkins) are a married couple, hanging on in quiet desperation in their perfectly decorated home, somewhere in suburbia. Smiff has an addiction to tinned spaghetti and entertains dreams of owning a sailing boat, despite having no experience of marine life whatsoever. Willow just wistfully thinks about getting out of the house, maybe going for a picnic or a nice walk? Today, she thinks, could offer the perfect opportunity.

But then the Jellyfish shows up at the door. Again…

Anya McChristie does a fabulous job of depicting the titular invertebrate, a wildly unpredictable creature with its own language, who can switch from unbridled joy to deep despondency at the twitch of an imaginary tentacle. Smiff appears to be on the creature’s wavelength from the word ‘go,’ and the two of them quickly form a powerful bond. This leads to Willow feeling excluded from them – and her attempts to get to know the visitor – even trying to teach it the intricacies of her beloved Scrabble – seem doomed to failure…

Filfbag Theatre’s Jellyfish is an absurdist comedy about the human condition, written by Osbon, and recent winner of the University of Edinburgh’s English Literature Play Award. There’s plenty to like in this quirky production, directed by Tilda Seddon. Both Osbon and Hawkins inhabit their characters with absolute authority and I particularly enjoy the sequence where Smiff and his tentacled-chum decide to let rip by indulging in the most fun pastimes they can think of. Cue some very strange antics and bizarre facial expressions.

It’s not all giggles. The world beyond the walls of the couple’s home appears to be a dark and forbidding place, somewhere to venture at your peril. Can it really be that there’s nothing out there?

Fast-paced, inventive and full of surprises, audiences will have a lot of fun figuring out exactly what the the mysterious visitor represents – and those in stifling relationships will doubtless identify with some of the interactions between Smiff and Willow. Jellyfish will be at Bedlam Theatre until May 4th. If you want to catch this, you’d better get a wriggle on.

4 stars

Philip Caveney