It is the mark of truly great theatre when the audience leave the auditorium and cannot stop talking about the play. I have spent the entire day with my friends digesting the extent of this production’s triumph, and it continues to excite, shock and emote hours after the show has ended.The story follows the return of war veteran Grant to his young wife Penny following his third tour of duty in Iraq. Something has changed in Grant, however. Although physically at home, mentally he is not there. What follows is an intelligent and carefully crafted exploration of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a human condition which Grafted Cede argue is inherent within Homer’s Odyssey. Confined to the bathroom and faced with the seemingly inane task of unblocking the bath tub, this show takes the well-worn set up of a Pinter, but masterfully exposes the relationship between mythological narratives and 21st-century life by applying modern theory to classical text. We go expecting yet another modern reinterpretation - Macbeth on the Moon or Lear in the Jungle perhaps. What we are given is something much closer to home.Will Pinchin expertly plays the shows hero Grant. Desperately trying to battle the monsters in his mind to return to his wife Penny played (alongside a plethora of other characters) by Dorie Kinnear. I have seen many plays attempt naturalism this Fringe, always coming up short - Grafted Cede however, provide us not with naturalism, but something much closer to truth. Kinnear’s energy and talent breathe the life into the piece; the cunningly crafted classical reinterpretations of Teiresias and the Cyclops are perfectly complimented by the stoic tragedy of the disenchanted wife. Sometimes the Fringe throws up unknown classics, works of true art which speak to each and every one of us in a way that only theatre can. This is exactly the sort of masterpiece which deserves not to go undiscovered. The audience spontaneously laughed, gasped and burst into tears in equal measure. Five stars. Hopefully more.
