An Attempt to Lose Time

There’s a whole lot of copper pipe on the stage, deliberately shaped into frames, and adorned with rails, bicycle wheels, a handful of tin cans – and a gong. The show’s writer and performer, Miranda Prag is worried about time: at the start, it’s how little she has; and what she has, how it is filled; and why when it is filled with the spontaneous requirements of the day, it inevitably makes her late for her meeting.

Prag takes the audience on a journey to live life without time – it’s her personal story, and her rapid-fire description of schedules and failed expectations is met with uncomfortable laughter: how did she know exactly what it’s like for us? When she escapes the urban rhythm and retreats to a canal boat, cruising ever northwards through the once-commercial waterways of England, her story slows down too. Her alarm clocks are replaced by the sounds of the local wildlife and it's beginning to sound like a wonderful existence.

Between chapters of her story, there are audio descriptions describing the changing set – and it’s wonderful to build this accessibility into the show, and not as an afterthought – indeed some of the humour is inserted here too: there’s great interaction between Miranda the recorded narrator and Miranda the live performer.

Whilst the recorded descriptions play out, Prag takes apart then reassembles the framework into a different shape – adding colourful decorations, deliberately positioning the wheels and string and bolts around the frame.

There’s bigger discussion on fossil fuels, and how quickly we are destroying an environment that’s taken a lot longer to evolve, but it’s brought back to a personal level through Prag’s humble and humbling journey.

There is cleverness squeezed into every nook and cranny of this innovative, surreal, but entirely relatable performance, and the climax of the show is a beautiful metaphor of her messages.

The Warehouse Theatre is just outside the city, but it’s definitely worth escaping the schedules of the Fringe hubs to enjoy a cool cocktail in the theatre bar before discovering if you can lose time.

Review by Mark Wickett

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