Edinburgh review: The Inevitable Heartbreak of Gavin Plimsole (Pleasance Theatre)

One of the kookier-sounding things in the Fringe brochure this year is this piece from young company SharkLegs. In The Inevitable Heartbreak of Gavin Plimsole the audience is connected up to heart monitors and you can watch your blood pressure rise or fall as the show plays out.

It's a neat trick to feature in a piece about love and the way love makes our bodies physically change, but it is realised badly here. We are given a belt to strap onto our torsos and given a number that corresponds with a heart reading which is projected, not onto a screen, but onto an open garden shed. It's actually hard to see most of the readings on the shed – with its uneven surface – and so I spent a lot of the show peering at the projection, trying to work out whether I was dying or not, rather than at the action onstage.

The piece itself has very little focus and the story of toymaker Gavin Plimsole jumps all over the place. Gavin has been diagnosed with a rare heart defect and this sends him into reveries about his last, lost love and missed opportunities. The audience are asked to perform tasks – someone is given a can of Red Bull to drink to raise their heart rate, another a cup of camomile tea to lower it. The audience also choose which path Gavin should take – should he talk to his mum about his heart or to God?

There are a few sweet moments, but nothing ties together into a coherent whole. The company are funny and dedicated, but you need more than that and a quirky idea to make a Fringe show work.

The Inevitable Heartbreak of Gavin Plimsole runs at Pleasance Dome at 1.40pm until 29 August.

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