Opening on a living room complete with incense, plastic Buddha and meditating woman, Hex is an hour long stylish lampoon of silly new age ideas and the charlatans they breed. Funny and well-written, the show did suffer from the occasional blemish of overacting which detracted from the atmosphere, if not the audience's enjoyment.The play centres around Toby (Ben Clifford), his wife Gwen (Sarah MacGillivray) and their constant battle of beliefs. Gwen laps up every new-age, homeopathic, magic treatment and accuses her 'Hawking-Dawkins' husband, Toby, of being closed-minded. This conflict is exacerbated when Gwen invites around to the house two ‘healers’ to try and cure them of their evil sofa.The script is well-conceived and comes complete with a surprisingly amusing twist at the end. The jokes are cleverly paced and the show rarely falls into the trap of trying too hard to steal laughs.Although their comic timing was flawless, the acting sometimes strayed into hammy realms. This was especially telling in their reactions. In such a light-hearted play the temptation to overact is hard to resist and it wasn't a fatal flaw in the show, more of a minor gripe.A very funny play which is well worth a watch, Hex is cleverly written and carried off in style. If you can get over the occasional piece of overacting there are many worse ways to spend an hour at this year's Festival Fringe.
