Symphony (Edinburgh Fringe)

Can plays be staged as music gigs? A trilogy of exciting young playwrights – Nick Payne, Ella Hickson and Tom Wells – have joined forces with new writing company nabokov to find out.

Strong Welsh accents and aggressive musicianship are two recurrent themes as a multi-talented four-strong cast (or should that be band?) weave their stories between shifts on drums, guitars and keys.

First, in Wells' Jonesy, we meet a 15 year-old boy with asthma, who dreams of passing GCSE PE. His workaround is to specialise in netball. Can he overcome his dodgy lungs and the mockery of his PE teacher?

Next, Hickson gives us a London-set tale of romance gone wrong as baking loner Alex inadvertently sets up the object of his affections with another man after a brief encounter on the bus. And finally, Payne's contribution My Thoughts On Leaving You sees a cheating lover attempt to woo his girlfriend back through song.

The pieces add up to an entertaining hour, with a commendable continuity in the writing style of each. And the music, by Ed Gaughan, isn't half bad – especially the catchy (if somewhat out of place at the Fringe) "Lovesong to London".

But what’s lacking is any real thematic continuity, and the characters are so broadly drawn – partly due to the fact their lines tend to get yelled down a mic – that it’s difficult to feel much for any of them.

However, Joe Murphy‘s production does go some way to showing that the gig format can be successfully married to theatre; even if the title is an rather over-ambitious description of the results.

Symphony runs at Assembly George Square until 25 August

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