Not long in from seeing Palimpsest in the Balcony room at Gilded Balloon Teviot. I quite like the irony of having to head to the lowest level to reach the Balcony, that’s just to queue then there’s a different set of stairs to get to it. The Balcony used to be one of the hottest rooms of the Fringe, yay, thank god for air-conditioning units.

Palimpsest, just googled it, apparently it’s something reused or altered but that still bears visible traces of its earlier form, ah, that makes sense! I’d never heard the word before, never heard of a pomelo before today, either (it does look very like a grapefruit);a day of discoveries! Palimpsest is also the name of a play by Alex Lacey, which she also stars in alongside Rob Kemp (he also has his own show Rob Kemp: Agenda reviewed last post).

Yes, I did see Palimpsest on the back of Agenda, good decision, loved it too. The flyer calls it a meta romcom, it’s meta and then some. If you enjoyed the film Free Guy that’s a good starter to liking this. The play starts normal enough, each actor delivers short monologues then the other joins in with the same line and takes over with their own monologue……until Jess tells Jim to stop interrupting her! The initial play is funny enough, but when the characters go off script, wow, its brilliantly written with really fun ideas – your head may hurt a bit after seeing this! Just go have a drink somewhere, you’ll be fine (the Library bar doesn’t have a lovely stock of real ales anymore, sadly, so head somewhere else if you want a good ale).

This career off-piste into a wickedly funny existential crisis reminded me of Phil Jupitus‘ play Waiting For Alice at a Fringe many years ago about Tweedledum and Tweedledee, but that was quite melancholy and sad, it’s the existential bit that’s similar. Both Palimpsest and Agenda are on until the final Sunday, time enough to fit them in!