Our history, and what wed wish our history to be. In the Tailor of Inverness, Matthew Zajac weaves together the story of his father through both of these lenses. For most of the relatively engrossing seventy five minutes, Mr. Zajac takes the audience from Poland to Scotland and back again, via his fathers recounted history and after his own investigation of the facts. Starting with a reenactment of his father and his uncles in Poland, it comes out of the gate with a bang, and Zajac keeps the breakneck pace up until the truth is eventually revealed, which is where it drags slightly. Not the only piece this Fringe where you can acquire a deeper knowledge of wartime migration of Poles to Great Britain (the equally as engaging Poland 3, Iran 2), this one is a bit more theatrical, with the inclusion of an omnipresent fiddler effectively setting the mood. Zajacs performance shifts between the various narrators seamlessly, but it becomes less effective when he is narrating his own story near the end. Despite that minor quibble, The Tailor of Inverness should suit most tastes for a compelling drama at this years Fringe.
