If you’ve been hankering for a show to make you feel simultaneously enlightened, exhausted, and emotionally wrung out, Priyanka Shetty’s #CHARLOTTESVILLE might just be your grim cup of tea. Billed as “the play that Trump does not want you to see,” it promises a hard-hitting, verbatim docu-play about the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally - that unfortunate moment when America reminded the world it still had a thriving white supremacy problem, complete with tragic casualties and a lot of shameful shouting. After a sell-out run in Washington DC, the UK premiere lands at the Pleasance’s Bunker Two, which somehow feels fittingly claustrophobic for such an unflinching examination of racial violence and identity politics.
Exactly the kind of theatre that Edinburgh needs to remind itself it’s more than just a playground for daft comedies
Written and performed solely by Shetty, a University of Virginia alumna who arrived seeking the American dream but found something closer to a nightmare of racial isolation and escalating hostility, the show is built from over a hundred interviews, court transcripts, and news reports. It is exactly what it says on the tin: an immersive, relentlessly earnest piece of documentary theatre. Those craving nuance will find it here, but don’t expect a comforting narrative or much in the way of theatrical frivolity. This is theatre as a moral examination, minus the fluffy cushions.
Shetty’s double duty as writer and solo performer could be read as brave or exhausting, depending on your tolerance for intimate storytelling without much wiggle room for levity or counterpoint. The direction by Tony-winning Yury Urnov, fresh from Helen Hayes accolades and regional theatre glory, promises a level of craft you’d expect for a play carrying this much cultural and political weight. It’s also produced by Richard Jordan, whose trophy cabinet of Olivier, Tony, Emmy, and Fringe First awards could fill a small museum. If anyone can ensure that this show doesn’t collapse under the weight of its ambition, it’s him.
Ultimately, #CHARLOTTESVILLE is exactly the kind of theatre that Edinburgh needs to remind itself it’s more than just a playground for daft comedies and bland musicals about long-dead royals. It dares to hold up a mirror to the ugly underbelly of American history and contemporary race relations through one woman’s brave storytelling. If you value your sanity and your thirst for subtlety, perhaps proceed with caution. But if you want to see a show that pulls no punches - and apparently makes Trump’s blood boil - then this is your ticket. Expect to leave the theatre feeling disturbed, enlightened, and just a little bit exhausted. Welcome to the Fringe, where no one said the truth would be easy.
