EDINBURGH 2025: Review: SINGLE USE, Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker Three
This production about the messes in our lives comes to the Edinburgh Fringe
What happens to our plastic waste after we toss it in the recycling? Where does climate action fit into our messy lives? These are the questions Verity Mullen’s Single Use intends to explore.
Also starring Mullen as Ella, she greets the audience in earnest with arms full of rubbish bags as she endeavours to sort out the recycling amongst the other chaos in her life.
From a complicated family dynamic, to awkward flatmate encounters, to a precarious future at her bar job, Ella gives us a peek into how she spends her days. With a creeping awareness about the impact of her daily Deliveroo habit and the various inflatable animals her boss keeps asking her to buy for the venue’s next rebrand, poor Ella has a lot on her plate.
An ever-growing list of missed calls and messages will resonate with any chronic procrastinator.
As life unravels, Ella becomes increasingly focused on something she believes she can control: the recycling. Yet, an innocent internet search leads her down another rabbit hole of climate anxiety as she questions where her waste really goes.
The show is punctuated with humorous sound bites, from karaoke bar hits to classic movie moments that win chuckles from this particular audience. That said, some of the interactions with sound cues and the plot overall could do with a little polish and refinement. There is excellent use of lighting to transport us between moments of reflection and fever dream sequences.
With a title like Single Use, Orange Squeeze Theatre’s show risks putting off the climate-ambivalent audience I believe it intends to reach. This is a common challenge when crafting theatre about environmental justice: we shouldn’t shy away from what the show is about, but make sure your resulting audience isn’t just going to be those already won over to your cause. Soft activism stories like this are important and needed to help nudge more people towards choices that are kinder for the planet.
Climate crisis aside, the piece provides comforting catharsis for anyone who feels like they don’t have it all together, but they can start somewhere. Even if it’s just sorting out the bins.
Single Use is at Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker Three until 25 August, except 11 August
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