Presented by Mycelium Theatre Company

Review by Orly Benn

Beside at Pleasance Courtyard

Something magnificent must happen to make anyone attend a show before midday at the Edinburgh Fringe. In the case of Mycelium Theatre Company’s A Microscopic Odyssey, it is not luck but meticulous craftsmanship from production to stage that has turned their (relatively speaking) early morning show into a totally sold-out feat of dedication and creative expansiveness.

Produced under the careful and formidable hand of May Kelley, and infallibly directed by Hope Wishart, A Microscopic Odyssey translates the life of microscopist and scientist James Weiss into a synergetic ensemble piece lead by Ben Boulton-Jones as Weiss. Boulton-Jones can only be described as intensely and exceedingly likeable, guiding the company with his remarkable range, oscillating between scientific precision and childish excitability as Weiss travels through the both time and life-realms between the micro and the macro. The rest of the ensemble, formed by cast members Greta Abbey, Allie-Rae Fossum and Elijah Bai Bangura are almost combusting with chemistry, carefully manipulating the (very well-done-and-not-indulgent) technical elements of the show, whilst adeptly mastering the central practice of physical storytelling as one ensemble unit.

Each member of the ensemble excels in their individual character scenes, with Greta Abbey as Weiss’s love interest in particular showcasing an astonishing capacity to make you feel everything all at once through the expressive force of her body alone, without actually saying a word. Enza Kim’s immaculate designs beautifully and imaginatively play with the production’s thematic explorations of light and transparency, allowing certain elements of the body to be illuminated behind fabric, or concealed cleverly by their own shapes.

The production does wonders despite fighting against the unfortunate restrictions of the venue that does very little to preserve the craftsmanship of its artist, with occasional light-bleeds and uninsulated noise pollution that, through absolutely no fault of the production, at times interrupt the meticulousness of the ensemble’s performance. Nonetheless, A Microscopic Odyssey shines as a case-study for what collaborative, devised ensemble theatre can do (even so early in the day), urging us to consider: How would our perspective of the world change if we were able to see it, all at once, in its microscopic universality?

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