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Tinderbox, Greenside Nicholson Square

By Amy Stow

Do you care about anything so much that you’d be willing to serve life imprisonment for it? To destroy your marriage for it? Heck, to die for it? Smoke and Oakum’s new play Tinderbox asks us such questions, challenging our assumptions about acceptable behaviour, and blurring the boundaries between terrorism, activism and victimization.

This darkly comic thriller generates greater suspense and higher stakes as it progresses; the initially slow introduction to the three activists, waiting below a bank to stage a peaceful (if illegal) protest, suddenly explodes into a frenzy of tension and confusion when the fourth and final character, Mazzy, unwittingly stumbles upon their antics.

The writing then really begins to take off, and the storytelling maturely deals with themes such as grief and loss, whilst simultaneously injecting humour into the unlikeliest of places (‘cup of tea, anyone?’). The cast, who all trained at East15, inhabit their roles with aplomb, although I especially warmed to Charlie Brixon, who shines as Mazzy with her excellent comic timing and amusing facial expressions.

Smoke and Oakum have produced an exciting offering of new writing for their second year at the fringe, and if the quality of Tinderbox is anything to go by, more thought-provoking theatre is to come from them in future.

Greenside @ Nicholson Square

19:35 (1 hr)

1-23 August

@smokeandoakum

★★★★

@postscriptjour

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