LEAVE A MESSAGE Comes To The Edinburgh Fringe
By: Marianka Swain Jul. 03, 2019
Two friends, Ed and Sarah, travel to the small bedsit where Ed's father passed away just a few days earlier. The place is wretched, filthy and reeking of alcohol. They begin the unenviable task of trawling through the squalid wreckage before them...
What ensues is a comedy (mostly), a true story (written and performed by Ed - the guy who lived it) and an unsentimental yet poignant peer into the detritus of a life, death, family secrets, alcoholism, our legacies and loneliness. A piercing character study and homage to a life ill-lived, Leave A Message is a subtle rumination on things we tend not to talk about, tackled with honesty and complete with the scuzziest set design you are likely to see all Fringe.
As Ed and Sarah wade through the debris, pouring over the contents, the fragments of one lost life begin to coalesce, just as another starts to show signs of cracking.
Will any of us be remembered for anything more than the mess we leave behind?
Either way, the carpet is beyond saving.
Leave a Message came into the world due to a chance encounter and burgeoning friendship. Ed Coleman met writer James Mitchell at a party, talked candidly about his father's death and animatedly about how he would like to write about it, but was struggling to distance himself enough to do so. James offered to help. In the early hours of the morning, the two arranged to meet and discuss it a few weeks later. Astonishingly, they both turned up.
Ed Coleman is an actor, improviser and writer. He has appeared in numerous television shows including Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (Sky), Merlin (BBC), Bones (Fox), and both seasons of the award-winning Spy (Sky). He starred as Harold Steptoe in the BBC Lost Sitcoms remake of Steptoe and Son, and can be seen in the upcoming season of GameFace as well as the improvised drama I Am... (both Channel 4).
'Leave a Message' runs from 31st July - 26th August (not 12th) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. For tickets and more information: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/leave-a-message
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