EDINBURGH 2014 - BWW Reviews: DON'T LET GO, Bedlam Theatre, August 16 2014

Leonard has a very boring and tedious job - he puts individual coffee beans in jars. It is unsurprising that he is a bit fed up with his life. He meets a red balloon and it inspires him to rediscover childlike happiness.

Don't Let Go took a little while to get going. We are first introduced to an incredibly sexist and unpleasant boss at the coffee factory. There is a love interest and coffee beans are exchanged like drugs. It seems like there is a lot of potential here for a great story.

I really wanted to like Don't Let Go but to be honest I just found the whole piece confusing. The narrative wasn't very clear and it just didn't really make sense. There are some points that are visually stunning and I have no doubt the performers are good at what they do - they just didn't have much to work with. I suspect that there is a subtle message in the show and that there was some sort of metaphor going on but I really didn't get that.

Don't Let Go runs at Bedlam Theatre until August 24th.