Janice MacDonald

I always want to taken in one of Amy’s plays, because she makes such gloriously interesting choices. I know I will never be disappointed and this was another winner. There is not a moment wasted in this lovely two-hander one-act play. What first appears to be a dismally low-rent Fringe set becomes the perfect setting for this wee jewel of a meet up between two lost souls putting on brave faces and trying to connect. The energy of the actors is impressive, and they do a remarkable script proud.

I went knowing Nikki was a sure thing, but was very impressed to find a solid cast of funny women providing up to the moment focus on what makes us laugh and/or bang our heads against the wall. This is a solid hour of laughter awaiting you. Run, don’t walk.

This is a perfect jewel of a play/production. In all the great stories, is a happy ending even possible? The seanchai whose memory is fading, her apprentice who has already experienced loss, and the stories of Irish legend swirl about, providing profound connections amid the laughter and the sadness. Susan Sneath offers in Siobhan a raw and unsentimental face of imminent dementia, and shows us in snippets the brilliance of a woman holding in her mind the oral culture of a nation that turns on and off. That Siobhan's gift to the world is as a memory repository makes the horror of this disease all the sharper. Her companion Fionn, played by Mark Guerrero, offers up a new form of storytelling with gusto and goodwill, and together they provide us all with a legend for our time. Written by Gavin Bradley and produced by him and Amanda Samuelson, this is very likely the play we’ll remember this year’s Fringe by.