A very American story, with a very European style, Dylan Dougherty’s tale of the balance of freedom and captivity has been brought to Edinburgh by Belgian director Christoffel Hendrickx.
The play opens with father and son, Quinn and Banjo, jumping on a freight train along with teenage runaway, Winifred. Winifred is new to the life of the free; aged just seventeen, she wants to escape her mundane life and go on an adventure. As the three characters playfully act out a melodramatic Shakespeareesque sequence, the freight train door slams shut and they are trapped.
Hendrickx describes the play as having ‘the feel of a story told around a campfire’, and that is just how it is. With the background of live bluegrass music provided by the wonderful musician, Dries Bongaerts, the play is based more around storytelling than performing, as Quinn and Banjo invite the audience to hear their tales of a life of travel.
The audience is left questioning whether the three characters are free or captive. While Banjo embraces his life as a homeless traveller, Quinn is trying to escape from freedom, and we realise they may not be as free as they appear. The Noosfeer VZW theatre company is based in Belgium and, although the cast generally manage to hold on to their American or Australian accents, they do occasionally falter. Apart from that, the acting is superb and the direction is quite magical. Although the overall theme is this question of freedom, the play also follows the building of relationships between the characters. Whether they are free or trapped, they will always have each other; the play beautifully captures the honesty of love and friendship.
