‘Our Town Needs A Nando’s’ (Space 1 at theSpace on the Mile, until AUG 15)

“50 minutes of super smart, ultra sassy stagecraft.”

We enter to find ourselves a long way from the creative bustle of EdFringe. We are adrift in a nameless Scottish town lacking much of anything (not least a cheeky chicken franchise). A group of highschool girls are working on a drama project. They want to express themselves and their frustrations at the obvious and unavoidable truth that where they are is not where they want to be. What follows is 50 minutes of super smart, ultra sassy stagecraft.

Samantha O’Rourke’s script is a treasure trove of adolescent plot tropes delivered with a frank honesty that (just about) avoids becoming maudlin by a cast who absolutely fit the bolshy schoolgirl oeuvre like it’s their second nature. Milly Sweeney’s direction is sound as a pound keeping it pacey even where the narrative fabric feels thin.

The excellent Lauren Mills as the toxic Rachel is the friend you want to avoid. The sneering life and soul of the childish dramas which in school generally, and in this nothing to do town in particular, take on a significance far beyond their merit. Eilidh Rose as Chloe has something to hide, playing the audience like we’re a salmon in the Tweed. Reese Hannah as Beth is the perfect mismatch with Mills for the sake of a she’s in she’s out relationship which ticks the rainbow box. There’s something there that’s missing but it’s not in the performances.

Lovely Selwyn as Zahida, the outsider from a place even less lovely that the unnamed town, comes dangerously close to stealing the show time and again. With a little more dash in the writing, Zahida’s role in highlighting the self-inflicted, first world problemsiness of the girls’ wee mega dramas might have been bolder and pushed this script out of its comfort zone.

This is a production bigger than the sum of its parts by a dynamic young company we should hope to see again climbing a more ambitious set of themes. That said, there are flashes of pure dead brilliance lighting up the 50 minutes stage traffic which, if not exactly setting the world on fire, tell us that a perfect creative storm is brewing somewhere over the horizen.

Come for direction and acting sharper than most. Stay for a successful collaboration better than most. Get your Scottish summer coats on and go see this!