Guinea Pigs on Trial

Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit of Sh!t Theatre – or Bouise as they’d rather be known – tackled joblessness in their last Fringe show. This time round they’re taking a similarly all signing on, all dancing approach to medical trials after being encouraged, as jobseekers, to enlist their bodies up for a chemical assault in return for precious cash. After a brief bicker about who’s Mulder and who’s Scully, they start an X-Files-style investigation into the ins and outs of being professionally prodded.

The only fly in the clinical testing ointment is that they’re rejected by every trial going. The cheerily branded Flu Camp is their first choice; the platonic ideal of medical trials, they hilariously compare its user reviews to the (far less) Majestic Hotel back home in Seven Sisters. But thanks to their allergies, gender, and bad PR (heart rhythms, although they also send up their bad press), they’re not even eligible for the less savoury options of gastroenteritis or bladder botox.

The rejections make for plenty of slapstick, medical gross-out fun. But they make their points with surgical precision, too, with input from Dr Ben Goldacre, of Bad Science fame.  There’s no huge X-Files conspiracy, but there’s still something sinister about Big Pharma’s suppression of test results – represented by an onstage paper shredder –  and the supernatural omnipotence of Money with a capital M.

This is an infectiously silly runaway trolley ride through hospitals’ darker corners, but it leaves behind a lingering whiff of something stronger – the desperation, not silliness, of being a guinea pig.

 

http://festival14.summerhall.co.uk/event/guinea-pigs-on-trial/