Issy Cory
Casey Jay Andrews and Jack Brett join their magnificent creative forces in a story of rituals, of grief and of love, fused with live music. As libations are poured, and salt is thrown, we learn of things lost, and the experience lifts us out of Summerhall and plonks us in front of Porth yr Ogof, the largest cave entrance in Wales.
Casey tells us about her background with caving, the excursions she’s been on and all the close calls. She also tells us about Sienna, about her story with loss, about revisiting the scene of past and present heartbreaks, and out of it comes a message of hope.
What a journey. Casey, our dutiful host, does everything to make us feel the most welcome, to make us feel at home. She asks us about the things we’ve lost, recording them onto a tape recorder, which is then compiled and played back to us as Jack introduces us to the space with a developing soundscape. There is an immediate sense of nostalgia.
As Casey pulls the thread from this initial exercise, she speaks of ritual. Paired with stunning lighting design, and a simple yet expansive set, we immediately buy into the ritual of sitting in this room, and listening to these talented storytellers.
Jack Brett is a musical alchemist. Faced with a million buttons, faders, guitars, loop pedals, and leads, he mixes up a big gorgeous concoction of an underscore, forever changing as Casey moves through the dialogue. It is a match made in heaven.
Casey uses myths to shape our understanding of grief, both in Sienna’s side-narrative, but in our own narratives as well. We are reminded of our own wishes to transcend the boundaries between life and death, to be able to follow our loved ones into the underland. In our minds, we visit the places that memorialise that special person, and there is a palpable collective weeping.
That’s not to say that this story is a sad one, far from it in fact. In a euphoric, transportive, ricocheting finale, the room holds an air of excitement, as if we’ve been cleansed, about to be sent back into the world with a new lease of life.
Enthralling and magical in equal measure.
Recommended Drink: Cave water. Refreshing.
Performances of The Quiet Earth Beneath have now concluded at EdFringe 2025.
Jake Mace
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
