Edinburgh 2022: Review: WHO HERE'S LOST?, Pleasance Attic

Ben Moor is an English Wes Anderson. Everything about his playful one man show Who Here's Lost? Exudes Anderson's signature twee from Moor's knitted jumper to the whimsical world of the play itself. But like the indie filmmaker darling, there is often too much style and not enough substance.

Moor is a delight to watch. His eyes sparkle with childlike glee as he conjures one rose tinted image after another. His dulcet tones are a paintbrush filling his world with a bright pastel colour palette. His fantastical ramblings may be a long and winding road, but it is less about the destination and more about the journey.

On one level Who Here's Lost? follows Moor on an absurdly long road trip with his aging architect mother-in-law. But on another level is it about exploration, the fragmentary nature of the human experience, and the fleeting relationships between us. Moor presents these fragments are not cold pointy shards, but soft edged, warm, and fuzzy.

Above all else Moor invites us to pause our lives and take in the world's eccentricities and idiosyncrasies. So much of the weird and the wonderful is brushed under the carpet of the everyday, Moor wants to pick out and examine with his gorgeously bizarre style. From happening upon a 'preposition film festival' to driving past 'speed enforcement missiles' his observations are as endearing as they are uplifting.

The focus is squarely on Moor. Tech and set are kept to a minimum. He also benefits from the cosy space of the Pleasence attic. The fifty-seat venue lets Moor take a conversational tone with his audience as he opens a window into his world.

But Moor becomes lost in his own daydream. He meanders towards the end of Who Here's Lost? and is unable to retrace his steps to find a satisfying conclusion. He becomes tangled in indistinct emotions, but never finds the time to develop them to their full.

A sense of melancholic loneliness only ever lingers in the background waiting for its moment in the sun that never comes. But again, it's about the journey and not the destination, and getting lost is part of that journey.

Who Here's Lost? plays at Pleasance Attic until 28 August