EDINBURGH 2016 - Review: AFTER THE FLOOD, Sweet Grassmarket, 10 August

After the Flood, a devised piece performed by a young cast from Sundial Theatre, is a futuristic drama set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. In the world of the play, civilisation has been all but wiped out by a great flood; the consequence of climate change it is hinted. One tribe of teenagers survive the new world by diving into abandoned buildings for food, taking their lives in their hands for the odd tin of peaches or pot noodle. Trapped by weather with diminishing food supplies on one such voyage into an abandoned hotel, conflicts begin to split the group, exacerbated by the appearance of a boy apparently left behind by Welsh raiders.

The premise brings to mind obvious thoughts of current dystopian fiction like Divergent, as well as evoking vague memories of Nineties television hit The Tribe, and similar themes to Lord of the Flies. With such examples to live up to, this production manages to create a similar atmosphere in a small-scale venue with a simple but effective design.

The cast differentiate the characters of the various tribe members clearly and confidently, though with eight roughly equal parts, it is difficult to develop them all fully in the space of an hour. An urgent pace is set from the outset - perhaps a little too urgent, as the show needs more opportunities to breathe and to get under the skin of the characters, allowing the actors to show greater variety in their performances. In the quieter moments, exposition is generally handled well, letting the audience build up a picture of what has brought the characters to this point.

Fans of similar material will enjoy seeing recognisable tropes play out, and the direction of the plot is not entirely unexpected. Despite this, there is not enough sense within the final scenes of the play of building to a climax. The cast clearly have a lot of talent and are more than capable of carrying a show, but on this occasion, the material, while engaging, did not serve them quite as well as it could have done. With strong performances despite structural issues, it would be interesting to see where some further script refinement could take this work.

After the Flood runs until August 14 at Sweet Grassmarket each day at 15:40.

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