No programme was available at Attempts on Her Life so I googled the company to see what I could learn about them.  Nothing apart from the fact that they had another production in the Fringe - The River by Jez Butterworth.  I enjoyed The Grads production of his Jerusalem a couple of years ago so I thought I'd give this one a whirl.

The play is set inside a fishing shack near a river somewhere.  It's a simple stylised set.  Doorways are indicated by uprights of unplaned 2x2 timber.  A sideboard and cupboard are skeletons only. There are a couple of chairs and a table of the same material with untreated plywood for seats and tabletop.

The two girls who were in Attempts are also in The River but not the men.  (Trouble with multi-tasking perhaps.)   

When the action starts we see a man and a woman in conversation.  They are having a teensy weensy argument.  He wants her to go with him out in the moonless night to catch fish.  She wants him to admire the sunset with her and then leave her to read her book.  He waxes lyrical about fishing and he also tells her he loves her and that she is the only woman he has ever brought to share the tranquility of this spot and its joys.  Maybe the love bit wasn't in the first scene but you'll see it was something of a theme.

In the next scene the man is on the phone reporting agitatedly that the woman he's been out fishing with has disappeared when there's a "yoohoo!" from outside and in comes a woman.  But it's not the same one.

He tells the cops all is well, tells her that he loves her and that she is the only woman he has ever brought to share the tranquility of this spot and its joys.

She in turn goes out, to have a pee as I remember, and the first one comes back.  This sequence is repeated several times but both women ultimately leave him and as the play ends, spoiler alert, a third woman comes in.

Will she be told that he loves her and that she is the only woman he has ever brought to share the tranquility of this spot and its joys?  I think so but that's a supposition since fortunately we are allowed to leave the theatre at this point.

It was well enough done but I call that pretty thin material.  The rave reviews of other productions of the play in London and New York talk about mystery and ambiguity.  Granted we never know whether he's just a serial shagger or a sincere seeker after a perfect soulmate to whom he will be faithful for ever after but I didn't care either way.  Maybe the problem is that the actor (no programmes this time either so nameless) isn't the mega man needed for the part.

Always something different on the Fringe.  Can you imagine enjoying a show where seven people stand in a line having had their footwear nailed to the floor and sway about very athletically, indeed dance, while four clarinetists play behind them?

No?  Well it's surprisingly entertaining.  I went with some of my clarinet class to see Correction last night and enjoyed it though not quite as much as the hollering, whooping crowd of supporters behind us did.