A Giant on the Bridge
★★★☆☆ Insightful
Assembly Roxy (Venue 139): Fri 2 Aug – Sun 18 Aug 2024
Review by Sophie Good
A Giant on the Bridge is a slow-burning and sympathetic piece of gig theatre, co-created with people who have lived experience of the criminal justice system, playing Assembly Roxy for the first two weeks of the Fringe.
The show brings to life the lesser-known side of incarceration – the release. Directed by Liam Hurley, it is the culmination of of a four year project, working with people inside prison and those waiting for their release, who shared their experiences through song-writing. These songs lie at the creative heart of this piece of musical storytelling.
Solareye, Jo Mango, Kim Grant, Louis Abbot and Louise McCraw on the set for A Giant on the Bridge. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Claire Halleran’s set, filled with rugs, armchairs, plants and cuppas, very much captures the ‘safe spaces’ used for community projects. There is barely enough room enough for the five musicians and their instruments as they squeeze in and fill the venue with their amplified sound.
Louis Abbott, of the band Admiral Fallow, is a warm and welcoming narrator, explaining the experience of working with inmates to help them use the powerful tool of music and song writing to express their feelings. Kim Grant interweaves this with a fairytale based on a trad story; working as a powerful metaphor about incarceration.
Clem, played by co-deviser Jo Mango, is a ghostwriter helping prisoners with their letters home, who is haunted by her own past and trying to deal with that as well as the challenging role she has played in these families’ lives.
impending reunion
The most memorable and immediate story; the one that feels most directly taken from real life, concerns D, who is energetically portrayed by Solareye. D is on the cusp of being released and is all nervous energy expressed through rap; his sister at home, played with real conviction by Louise McCraw, is temporary carer for his young daughter. Their impending reunion is what the piece hurtles towards.
The strength of A Giant on the Bridge is its earnest desire to share the feelings, impact and challenges of coming out of prison. D’s powerful rap as he walks down the street as a free man gives an insight into a lesser-known world and lends greater understanding of that critical point within the criminal justice journey.
Louis Abbott and the Giant on the Bridge company. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
It is also an ode to storytelling and song writing as a tool to heal, to express and to help people at times of separation.
A huge part of the project must have been the benefits to the inmates and their families which cannot be fully conveyed in the final performance. The voices of the Distant Voices Community do however ring loud especially in songs like Bars and Multicoloured Chairs.
The multitude of voices conveyed in the piece also offers one of the challenges for the audience, to keep up with what’s going on given the interweaving narratives. Sometimes the songs are not part of the story, but a thematic echo. Occasionally the lyrics become lost in the predominantly electric guitar accompaniment.
There is much to be admired in the musical storytelling, lyrical depth and use real life experiences to show us the humanity behind the sentence, however. While the play doesn’t offer any answers it certainly shows us how things are for those on the very edge of their turning their own lives around.
Running time: One hour and 20 minutes (no interval)
Assembly Roxy (Central), 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU (Venue 139)
Fri 2 Aug – Mon 18 Aug 2024
Daily (not 7, 12): 10. 40am.
Tickets and details: Book here.
A Giant on the Bridge links:
Website: https://www.ktproducing.co.uk
Instagram: @agiantonthebridge
Facebook: @agiantonthebridge
X: @giantonbridge
ENDS
