A teacher lingers between life and death and wonders what it was all for, while the Angel of Death decides his fate in a liminal waiting room, longing to realise her dream of becoming a daytime quiz show host.
One of the more unique, wonderfully Fringe-y shows on offer
What follows from this unusual premise is a combination of gentle ponderings on the way we spend our lives and how we let dreams slip away, with quirky characters, audience quizzing, and an unexpected turn towards an almost psychedelic conspiracy theory at the end.
James Mannion, playing the benign science teacher – also called James – has a clear talent for pairing songwriting with storytelling. The music is the enduring highlight of the piece overall, and having a live band is one of the show's main luxuries. The sound becomes quite beautiful with the support of The Sisters of Mercy (a choir more commonly known as Women of Note) providing harmonies from a heavenly balcony behind us. I'm eagerly awaiting the concept album that would be a natural follow-on from this show.
Overall, the production is fun but scrappy, struggling at first with a few technical and costume glitches, with the stage looking jumbled throughout. The script is lighthearted but lacks enough focus to stitch the story, character, audience interaction and music together in a satisfying way.
With a little more polish, the show's vision would have been more cohesive and effective – and it was tantalisingly close to getting there. But The Angel of Death Will See You Now is enjoyable and entertainingly anarchic, and is certainly one of the more unique, wonderfully Fringe-y shows on offer.
