EDINBURGH 2016 - Review: PLEASE EXCUSE MY DEAR AUNT SALLY, Pleasance Courtyard, 10 August
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally is a mnemonic used to help solve a maths equation. The relevance of the title is that this play begins in a maths classroom. A teacher confiscates a student's phone. After accidentally taking the phone home with her, she skims through it and feels as though she knows him intimately. She can see beyond his student bravado and that he likes photography.
The teacher has a conventional and dull relationship but seems to be looking for something more exciting. She starts an affair with her student and the play has a lot of potential. However, they have chosen to tell the story in a very unusual format. The affair is told through the eyes of the mobile phone. While it's an interesting concept, lines such as "He put me in his pocket" or "She put me in her handbag" are cringe-inducing. When the affair is discovered, the phone then apologises to its owner for letting him down.
There are two main actors in the piece but a further three cast members are used to narrate the story, which starts to grate as they do it line by line. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally is a very physical piece and the movement distracts from what is, at heart, a pretty good story.
The format of is trying too hard to be clever and ends up ruining what could have been an interesting show.
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally runs at the Pleasance Courtyard until 28 August.
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