Eve Miller
The production opens on a mystery, drip-feeding details to the audience that swirl around the space and hang in the air. This Blighted Star muses on surveillance, obsession, male loneliness and the tricky inconsistencies between perspective and reality in this ambitious hour long production.
Writer and performer Alfie Jones delivers a deeply engaging and gradually unravelling performance as his obsession grows throughout the piece. His subtly unsettling performance is both charming and off-putting, making you guess at – and second guess – his intentions. Real moments of vulnerability and insecurity pierce this ambitious and charismatic performance, which succeeded in traversing this complex character’s emotional journey.
Jones’s writing contains moments of excellence, building tension effectively and planting clues and red herrings that grabbed your attention and forced you to sustain it. However the conclusion of the mystery left me wanting more, and with the distinct feeling that there had been seeds planted that hadn’t been allowed to grow. The lines were littered with rich metaphors that were often engaging, and yet sometimes left the script tripping over itself in its own cleverness, resulting in moments of textual fumbling.
The use of multimedia was impressive, with projection, sound, and lighting design working in harmony to create an oppressive atmosphere. Unfortunately, the videos of the schoolboy conspiracy true-crime influencer were jarring and undermined their symbolic and textual power – perhaps the utilisation of a different effect could have been more impactful and allowed the gravity of these videos to be felt, continuing to build rather than breaking the tension.
With a little tightening of the script and some plot tweaking to make the ending sharper, this production could be outstanding. Unnerving, enticing, and intelligent, this parable of observation and obsession will set your teeth on edge.
Drink recommendation: Absinthe – mysterious, risky, potentially psychoactive.
You can catch This Blighted Star at Buttercup at Underbelly, George Square from 30th July to 24th August at 15:45 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Jake Mace
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
