Finding time to eat a nourishing meal at Edinburgh Fringe can be challenging, but this doesn’t seem to a problem faced by Nick, one of the characters in Pedro Leandro’s Fiji playing at the Pleasance Courtyard this Edinburgh Fringe.
Two-hander Fiji, directed by Evan Lordan, blends the rom-com and horror genres to create a very unique piece of theatre that manages to both enchant and disgust its audience simultaneously.
Sam arrives at Nick’s flat for what seems like a regular hook-up. The pair have clearly already been chatting online and the weekend has been planned out. But ultimately, after the sex and cheap wine, Sam wants to die and Nick lays out in meticulous detail how he will dispose of Sam’s body; by cooking and eating it.
Before you panic, other than some graphic descriptions of the butchery process, Fiji focusses more on the weekend leading up to Sam’s planned demise. Leandro’s script very cleverly explores the links between sex and cannibalism and the concept of love.
And love is important here, Sam desperately wants to fall in love, but he also wants to die. For Nick too there’s also something ‘romantic’ about the set-up, “you’ll be inside me, we’ll be together forever” he says.
Sam Henderson and Eddie Loodmer-Elliott play Sam and Nick, and crucially make each of the characters feel believable, even in the most unbelievable of circumstances. Although Fiji is actually inspired by real-life events, and has clearly been thoroughly researched.
It’s a small venue but a few too many lines were mumbled, making it difficult to hear what was being said, only in the final few scenes where anger overflowed did it feel like we could actually hear everything that was being said. However, the intention of the piece was clear and the strong writing and direction kept everything moving along.
Often witty, Fiji, is a tasty little drama that keeps it’s audience entertained, curious and maybe even a little repulsed.
