Crazy Glue

Can a relationship—or a show, for that matter—exist on sparks of attraction alone? Physical theatre company Single Shoe Productions take a relationship from courtship to marriage to grief and resentment, implicitly asking that question throughout. The piece they have created certainly has glimmers of charm, but whether or not that’s enough for the long haul is another question.

With no words, precise physical characterisation and lots of cartoonish sound effects, Single Shoe’s pair of performers tell the simple narrative of two people bound together by marriage and the eponymous crazy glue. Their style of the storytelling borrows from clowning and the visual language of silent movies, applying exaggerated gestures and gleeful slapstick to the most everyday of actions.

This is familiar Fringe fare, its stretched grins and carefully choreographed tomfoolery as ubiquitous as ukuleles and one-man shows. There are moments of true invention amongst all the knowing, well-worn tropes, but Crazy Glue is at its best when briefly swapping silliness for poignancy. In the aftermath of catastrophe, its characters become suddenly unmoored, the jolting sense of loss providing a welcome injection of raw human emotion.

As a fifteen minute sketch, Single Shoe’s premise would be engaging, sweet, smart even. At just under an hour, it stretches its already thin whimsy to breaking point. There’s no doubt that it’s slickly executed for what it is, but the substance beneath the clowning is as fragile as its central romance – and not everything can be stuck back together.