EDINBURGH 2011: BWW Reviews: CAN'T STAND UP FOR FALLING DOWN, Greenside, 1b Royal Terrace, Aug 5 2011

Clare Maddox

Watching a woman push her own face in a dish of cold shepherd's pie on stage might sound like pure Fringe slapstick, but this production of Richard Cameron's play set in 1980s Doncaster is a disturbing tale of death, domestic abuse and one man's malign hold over the lives of three women.

The drama focuses on the devastation wrought by the bullying Royce, whom we never see. It's his invisible hand we are left to imagine as he pushes his long-suffering wife's face into her dinner, fires a shotgun while chasing a frantic couple over the fields and gives his son a knife to take to school in his lunchbox.

Instead, we see on stage the reactions of the women in his life, drawn out over an hour and a quarter in three convincing and energetic performances. As the decade continues, with its unmistakeable soundtrack and embarrassing clothes, the tragic consequences unfold until the play reaches its inevitable climax. By this point, the threads of the women's lives are irrevocably tied together, and the drama ends in a satisfyingly dark resolution.

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