Gameplay at Edinburgh Fringe 2026 ★★★★★
★★★★★ Gameplay | Pleasance Dome: 10 Dome
Artists Carmen Collective aka Sam Rees and AJ Turner use audio and apocalypse politics to turn the fringe on its head in Gameplay
This is show stands out at the fringe as being ‘access led’ audio description of anything visual happening gives an audience a chance to switch off their eyes if they want to and slip into the apocalypse via Quentin Letts. Sound is the key to the whole thing with all visuals being audio described. The might at first feel a little familiar to those who might know anti-theatre makers Forced Entertainment with their abstract deconstruction of theatrical clichés, but this show goes into a more entertaining, more intensely emotional and less obtuse place.
With there not being anything to see, other senses can break free and this honest experience helps strip out the lies from traditional theatre and go deeper into meaning, feelings and the dread of the contemporary disaster footing. This is not the theatre we want but the performance we need. A philosophical but relatable hour that asks questions about how can we make plans in a time of endless emergency, war and disaster, where everything seems ‘provisional’ and the future is a rumour. It is a post-post modern look at how to cope with this fractured nightmare the world often seems and a feeling little unexplored in other more frivolous fringe shows.
Towards the second half Sam Rees the narrator parodies the out of touch Daily Mail theatre critic Quentin Letts as a metaphor for the status quo. A fuddy duddy not being able to understand the changes he sees as woke and not like the good old days when there were standards (all created by powerful straight white men). There are some theatre in jokes but on the whole there is certainly accessible funny material around his own perspective on the avant-garde show we are watching.
The show’s simple but effective parts add up to a tearjerking sound poem about feeling like it’s the end times with stunning exquisite soundscapes from AJ Turner a la Jean Michelle Jaar, Ennio Morricone or Vangelis that take you somewhere else. There’s a symbiotic relationship between sound and text that echoes the friendship and feeling of dread shared between the performers. At the end, Sam Rees calls it a ‘marmite’ show and the fringe needs more shows like this that challenge, provoke and are deeply political and emotional rather than derivative or pure entertainment.
An unmissable sensory spiral dealing with the feeling we’re all living on borrowed time and the everyday grief of now
| Access Score ♿♿♿♿ (4/5) 🚧Access notes: The first show that deals with access as a first priority enabling visually impaired people to fully participate in the show. There was a quite long-winded accessible route entering the space via the stage with lift for wheelchairs but Pleasance still need to do more to make this obvious and have people greeting at the entrance to help audience members with access needs without having to book in advance. ❄️Heat: Cool 💺Seat – Folding chairs with padding and raked seating. |
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
