EDINBURGH 2023: Review: NOT OUR CRIME, STILL OUR SENTENCE, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

It’s been four years since Dawn’s husband’s imprisonment. With 12 still to go until he’s released, the pressures of raising two kids alone whilst being on benefits are crushing her. Mikael Philippos puts a prison sentence in perspective, but tries to be too entertaining when he should be introspective. This scenario of this kitchen sink comedy is thought-provoking, but its execution doesn’t allow for much subtlety to be found between the lines.

A largely unchallenging script, sloppy direction, and actors who are either too young or too old for their roles make it amateurish and erratic. Even though it was inspired by his lived experience, the play feels artificial. Predictable and with a conventional, unengaging structure, it doesn’t do justice to what is a poignant and unexplored side of the subject.

Ambling between cheaply crafted stock characters and expanding only the lesser interesting ones, the project needs work desperately. The story has the potential to make for a provocative and arresting comic drama about the fallout of the system, but, so far, it doesn’t show it.

Not Our Crime, Still Our Sentence runs at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose on the following dates:  9-13, 15-17 August.

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