1 Singular Sensation

1 Singular Sensation, billed as a "satirical vision of contemporary society", opens with a recorded voiceover: “we should stop wasting money on apathetic, lazy young people.” The 18-strong cast of young actors in the show offer an immediate contrast to the picture that this quotation paints: they are energetic, committed, giving the performance their all. Whether you should give your money to this show is, however, in question.

The satire in Nick Cassenbaum’s script for 1 Singular Sensation is largely heavy-handed, often reduced to a string of empty questions that feel as though they’ve confused the cast as much as anyone. Characters include holidaymakers who say they love to go abroad, but hate everything foreign. There’s a priest who’s horrified at the idea of giving sanctuary to the great unwashed – claiming, in one of the sharper lines, that “food doesn’t grow on trees you know”, and describing in disgusted detail a baby swaddled in newspapers shitting itself in his church. And, more poignantly, a musician who, told he may no longer play his trombone, tries to use his hands as an instrument.

However, many of the caricatures aren’t painted with any clarity, and the performances don’t, apart from a strong turn from the holidaymakers, transcend those typical for a school play. 1 Singular Sensation’s central thrust—which has something to do with moral indifference and hypocrisy—gets lost on a crowded stage and among slapstick moments that, for the most part, the cast finds funnier than the audience do. The singular sensation we’re left with is of an absurdist comedy gone wrong.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/1-singular-sensation