There are a number of interesting-looking plays on in Edinburgh that are being performed in morning or lunchtime slots, and I’ve tried to find a good balance of them for our week at the Fringe. But, at the end of the day, a lot of the choice is guesswork. Wasted is one such play – it looks interesting enough; here’s the blurb: “Based on true events. An engaging and unsettling drama in one act. Wasted explores the grey area in consensual sex and how outside pressures can blur the lines of what did happen and what we think happened. This dark drama puts the audience in the jury seat and forces us to make a judgement on a crime which is based on feelings and emotions rather than fact and evidence. Starring Will Merrick (Skins, About Time) and Serena Jennings. From the writer of Belfast Boy, 2014 Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award.”

I’d already decided that Belfast Boy would be on our list for this year’s Fringe – we saw it last Saturday. But what decided me specifically to book for this play was the fact that one of its two performers is Will Merrick, whom we had seen last year in the Royal and Derngate’s Christmas production of Merlin. I thought he gave a great performance in that, and therefore I’m hoping to see him give another. The last time I saw him he was wandering aimlessly around Marks and Spencer like he was on another planet. Actors, eh? It starts at 12:15 at the Gilded Balloon Balcony, so please feel free to check back after 1pm to see what we thought of it. You can also catch up on finding out about our next show too.

Update:

When is a rape not a rape? You can work it out by reference to the law, but when you get two wasted people, obliterated by drink, the lines get blurred. There are no winners and losers when they wake up the next morning. Brilliantly written and performed, a really dynamic and funny production as well as asking very difficult questions. There’s an element of “there but for the Grace of God” about the story; and the end wraps up your opinion of the whole thing with devastating finality. Superb.