EDINBURGH 2013 - BWW Reviews: REVOLUTION SOCIETY, Pleasance Dome, August 13 2013

As well as hosting theatre and comedy professionals from around the world, the Edinburgh Fringe also plays host to a large number of student and youth theatre productions. "Revolution Society" comes from the Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatre of Guildford, a group which is no stranger to the Fringe. This political comedy is the story of a student Revolution Society, an extracurricular group annoyed at the system and wanting to change things, only without a concrete idea of what they want to change and how to go about it. From complaints about the shrinking size of Snickers bars and the clichés of being student revolutionaries, through to debate on what should be done with the stock market, the play follows a group of young people who move from drafting polite letters to the Prime Minister to setting up their own country.

It is definitely pleasant to see a young group tackling theatre that is relevant to both modern society and to their own age group, and the cast certainly demonstrate that they are capable of tackling this challenging and interesting script by Sarah Power.

Supported by competent performances, the production is driven by a rich sense of irony throughout, particularly evidenced in the choice of props - the characters proclaim their aversion to large corporations while drinking out of Starbucks cups and Coca Cola bottles for example. Despite the sometimes high-brow and abstract concepts in the script, the cast demonstrated that they understood the material rather than just parroting lines, which was particularly necessary in a show that has references to Chomsky, Marx, empiricism and existentialism. The necessary irony would not have worked without this understanding and they managed to keep the audience following along with some rather clever philosophical humour.

An excellent achievement for a young company and a fun piece of political theatre, "Revolution Society" is far from revolting.

Revolution Society is at the Pleasance Dome at 1220 each day until August 25th.

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