Five Reasons To See … Reykjavik at the Bongo Club

1. It’s a breath of fresh air


If this is your first Edinburgh, or you’re a veteran of the experience like me, pretty soon you know the format of most Fringe shows: huddling into a stuffy black box, where you sit in rows peering at an equally small black stage. Reykjavik takes all that and blows it out of the water, right from the start a small band of you are immersed right into the thick of the action (inside my memory of Iceland, to be precise), dressed as forensic detectives and entering a hazy white world that keeps shifting its shape. It’s totally unlike anything you’ll have experienced before.


 
2. It’s cheaper and easier than getting to Iceland.


Forget volcanic ash and BA strikes, Reykjavik gives you as powerful, emotional and intimate experience of this amazing country of Iceland as actually going there. Not the tourist clichés of Blue Lagoon and late-night clubbing, but what it’s like to actually live on this extreme, near-Arctic island for more than a year. Because the show immerses you right into these landscapes, audiences have come out saying they felt like they’d really been there, lived that experience. (I think they meant it like a compliment, as opposed to a 70 minute show feeling like a year, I promise).


 
3. Audiences and critics love it


We’ve done some previews in May, and both audiences and critics have come out saying it’s an amazing experience; powerful, emotional, richly layered and visually stunning, their words not mine! How many Fringe shows can guarantee you that?


 
4. It’s a labour of love


It took over two years to make Reykjavik. We were fortunate enough to make the show collaboratively with a great group of designers and theatre-makers. It was a particular pleasure to work with the two directors, both of whom have their own multi-award winning companies; Carolina Valdes from theatre O (3 Dark Tales/the Argument/Delirium) and Lucinka Eisler from Edinburgh favourites Inspector Sands (Hysteria/If that’s all there is). You’ll see quality and an attention to detail that’s rare to see in Fringe shows.

5. It’s going to sell out

Going a bit too far? Well, maybe. But each show can only take 20 audience max at a time, and the show’s only on for just over two weeks from August 12. This means that given all of the above, sooner or later it’s going to sell out. My advice is to book your tickets now. Don’t say you weren’t warned…

Jonathan Young’s Reykjavik is at The Bongo Club, 12-29 Aug at 11:15 & 12:45.