Lorna Irvine thinks the returning show is good but needs a trim.
Les Enfants Terribles' The Trench (***), penned by Oliver Lansley, has a nice central concept: theatre as anti-war ballad.
Using puppetry, live music created by Alexander Wolfe (who during his best moments has an ethereal range a little reminiscent of Jeff Buckley) and physical theatre, this narrative exploring the suffering of young men during the First World War should be a huge success, and is often wonderfully staged.
Bert (finely played by Ben Warwick) is the very epitome of a war hero: handsome, kind and brave, with a humanitarian spirit. When he loses his wife in childbirth (touchingly portrayed in shadow puppet form) and witnesses first-hand the horrors of trench battles, he goes into meltdown. This is not what he enlisted for.
Personal demons are represented by Matt Hutchinson and Maya Seidler's impressively crafted puppets (the horse and dragon are beautiful), and Sam Wyer's stunning set fragments in two like Bert's broken body and mind. The other cast members (Alexander Scott, Elliott Rennie and Edward Cartwright) are all very good, operating the puppets and singing live, playing cello, accordion and mandolin along with Wolfe.
So why does the play not fully engage?
At over an hour, it is simply too long to sustain interest with forty minutes' worth of good material, and the extended metaphor of facing demons goes on rather long. The demon puppet itself is far too cute and lacks menace, providing unintentional comedy.
Not a bad piece of imaginative theatre, nonetheless: a little trimming and it would have more punch.
The Trench performance at Pleasance Courtyard. Check website for dates, times and prices.
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