Words: Elodie Marriott

4 stars

In David Elms Describes a Room, David Elms describes a room. Yes, it’s as simple as that. No, it’s not the room we are in. Yes, audience participation is required for it to work. And yes, it’s fantastic.

He has a calm demeanour, does David. A soft voice that reassures us the pressure’s off, we don’t have to be funny. Slowly but surely, this imaginary room is filled with objects suggested by the crowd. He mostly responds with a sincere “nice”. There’s one deadpan “that’s so fun” to an over enthusiast and a gentle reprimand for a fictional clock too many, but the collaborative experience of the show is relaxed yet thrilling. 

For an hour, all of us strangers inhabit the non-existent space that we have created together. We know where everything is. We know how that chair feels and what we would see if we looked out the window. Once the room is ready, Elms interacts with it. Every time he gets too close to the cactus (not) sat in the middle of the room, we gasp, and when he sweats near the fire we’ve lit in the middle of May (as that’s the date someone’s decided it is), we laugh. 

David Elms Describes a Room is one of a kind. A totally unique adventure. David Elms must surely be magic. 

David Elms Describes a Room
Upstairs at Pleasance Courtyard
21.30
5-30 Aug