EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SING, RIVER, Pleasance Courtyard

It’s Midsummer’s Eve, and a young man is ready to plunge into the Thames to make his sacrifice. As we stand alongside him, we dive into British mythology and pagan beliefs as he goes on a journey defined by backhandedly bitter irony. Nathaniel Jones writes an ancient fable suspended in time, addressing the lies we tell ourselves in our attempts to romanticise our memory.

Sing, River enjoyed a successful run at the Hope Theatre in London earlier in the year, but it truly achieves its full potential here at the Fringe. A delicate, evocative atmosphere with otherworldly visuals accompanies haunting songs that are subtly warning and dangerous at the same time.

More private interludes tackle the reason why the character has found himself bankside, wishing to learn how to ask the gods for what his heart desires. He explores human success and its shortcomings with a poetic delivery that confidently slips from verse to lyrical prose.

Directed by Katie Kirkpatrick with a score by Faye James, the piece is an appreciation of queerness and an invective against the idealisation of the toxic people in our lives. Torn between wanting to forget and refusing to do so, Jones retraces his steps. 

He feels hardened by time and experience as his quest mirrors that of kings and knights that queried the river for answers before him. At its core, it’s a folk musical about acceptance and abuse. It’s eerie and peaceful, alarming and reassuring. A brilliant addition to the queer theatre landscape.

Sing, River runs at the Pleasance Courtyard on the following dates: 8, 10-15, 17-22, 24-27 August.

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