Words: Caitlin Finnerty

4 Stars

Philosophy of the World, the latest offering from In Bed With My Brother, is a manic, unpredictable, and wholly original return to the Fringe after six years away. Inspired by The Shaggs, a cult band often dubbed “the best worst band of all time”, the show takes the form of a biographical three-act play, though any sense of linearity quickly disintegrates into chaos.

Nora, Dora and Kat hurl themselves into the roles of the three Shaggs sisters, their story told through projected text on the backdrop that functions like stage directions. This alienating device gives the piece a surreal quality: the performers appear like creatures dropped into situations they barely understand, responding only to the words flashing behind them. The result is part Mr Bean, part Monty Python, and part fever dream.

Nothing is predictable. One moment the trio are performing in earnest, the next the audience are witnesses to possible murder, asked to boo, jeer and even throw cans of Pepsi at the stage. Nigel, the long-suffering stage manager, is under constant threat of death, while the performers gleefully smash the fourth wall, declaring “This isn’t a play, this is a mess” and “We’re all a little bit scared.” Beneath the mayhem runs a thread of fate, choice, and the connections between The Shaggs’ doomed career, the trio themselves, and the act of making art at all. By the intense, almost terrifying finale, Philosophy of the World has become less a play and more a manifesto, a thrilling, maniacal meditation on destiny and performance.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD
Red Lecture Theatre
Summerhall
22:45
Aug 21-24