Edinburgh Festival `99: Theatre Review

LOOKING FOR THE TALLYMAN

6.40pm, Assembly Rooms, Venue 3, pounds 9, 0131-226 2428

It was advertised as "Goldilocks or Hansel and Gretel for adults", but its effect was more like that of the three bears and the witch rolled into one evil, spitting ball of aggro. Childhood dreams mix with adult nightmares in this exploration of illegitimacy and children's homes before and during the Second World War. Nursery rhymes are twisted by grandad, and Little Blue Boy is put in the well ("Who put him in? Jenny for her sin"); childhood rituals and mantras are perverted to a level at which they seem to become magical incantations. Both written and performed by Richard Talbot and Carran Waterfield, its autobiographical content and the energy and passion which they devote to it make it one of the most terrifying, disturbing and powerful plays on the Fringe. It conveys a sense of memories struggling to extricate themselves from a cluttered mind, as well as the sense of searching for something which cannot be pinned down, making it a truly haunting play.