A Place That Belongs to Monsters is currently showing as part of the Edinburgh Fringe at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall. It is written and performed by Casey Jay Andrews and is a one person show combining theatre with storytelling, spoken word and a touch of song. Centred around the human stories of 4 women across various stages of life on a single day, and their different experiences on one day; the end of school and the beginning of the summer term. This piece does carry a trigger warning of death mention and blood.
From the outset, it is clear A Place That Belongs to Monsters is well constructed and well crafted. Overall, it is an expression of the rawness of human emotions and the thoughts that are associated with the escalation of emotions. In the young girl, we have a fascinating insight of the world through a child’s eyes and the naivety of childhood. Through the older woman, we can capture the crucial importance of the relationship between a mother and daughter and how love can echo through the years.
Casey’s delivery of A Place That Belongs to Monsters is intimate, and her performance left this reviewer feeling as though the audience and performer were engaged in a personal conversation. Casey was very energetic at appropriate times, and this helped further foster good audience engagement.
The music was very complementary to the text and never overshadowed it any point, however the transitions between characters and their stories could have been a bit slicker, as it became a touch jarring at times from the general immersion of the performance.
There is a sense of impending, inevitable disaster looming on the horizon, and this creates a feeling of fearful anticipation. There are interesting elements that are repeated in the performance that resonate with the individual as being a fundamental truth that we would be more comfortable to deny; “every act of creation is at first an act of destruction.”
In summary, A Place That Belongs to Monsters is a well-crafted piece with stunning imagery conveying human stories and human truths that continue to resonate with the audience after the performance has ended. This show is well suited to those who want to contemplate the nature of humanity.
