Greenside @Riddles Court, Edinburgh
3 stars
When gun law meets the art world, the survivors take no prisoners in Nancy Hamada’s play, which looks at the long-term side effects of a mass school shooting on a mother and a best friend left behind. For artist Taylor Kriss, it is by making a five feet high bronze sculpture of her best friend Jessie to keep his memory alive. For Jessie’s grieving mother, TV actress Fedelis Spector, the sculpture is a memorial that gives her comfort as it graces her living room where her son once inhabited.
When Taylor wants to hitch a ride with bronze Jessie from New Jersey to Chicago, where it will form part of her debut exhibition, the pair end up on an epic road trip that will put them all in the spotlight. Especially as Taylor’s swag includes a bag full of fifty guns, one each bought with ease from every state.
This set up makes for an at times comic trip that in Todd Faulkner’s production comes on like a cross generational Thelma and Louise, with Nicole Greevey’s Fedelis sparring with August Kiss Feeley’s Taylor in a way that sees them find common ground enough to heal as they embark on their adventure.
A word too for the finished artwork itself, a multi media interactive installation that is a genuinely thought provoking idea that wouldn’t look out of place in a real gallery. Here, it becomes the all too pertinent punchline of a movie in waiting delivered with wit and style without ever losing sight of its serious intent.
Greenside @Riddles Court until 24 August (not 11, 18). 3pm.
The List, August 2024
ends
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