Everyone We Know

It's a shame that Everyone We Know was incorrectly listed in the Fringe programme under Dance and Physical Theatre, because that raises expectations that this rather sweet little show doesn't attempt to reach.

It's an inconsequential two hander in which for most of its length the 'everyone we know' is ourselves, and we don't know us very well.

Tom and Rachael are neighbours. They each like the other but neither knows it. So they spend a lot of time in those private moments we don't usually show other people.

Oh, nothing gross, just staring in the mirror, examining close-ups via the video camera, obsessing about plump bits, keeping a video diary, listening to your navel tell you to eat more.

It's not a perfect show, too much time is spent sharing semi-poetic thoughts with the audience, but gradually a spell is cast and you desperately want these two lonely souls to make contact.

When they do all the conversations they've rehearsed somehow don't quite work but there's always the broken-up polystyrene and the origami fish to help smooth the path.

Played out amidst a mess of television sets, flattened cardboard and general stuff, this is a devised show that is still itself something of a mess. It needs a lot more tightening up and some of the more surreal verbal ramblings need reeling in a bit. Still, like its inspiration, the film Me and You and Everyone We Know, this is a piece that does in the end charm, indeed it almost enchants.

Tom and Rachael are a sweet couple and deserve more than the handful I saw it with, but they do need to add more skills if they want to attract and hold larger numbers.