What do you want to do before you die? What keeps you awake at night? Where is the best place to hide a body?
Lists for the End of the World is a crowd-sourced show, literally made from lists. People who have contributed have answered a number of questions and their answers provide the lists that make up the show. Three performers relay these lists throughout the show, providing moments of comedy, ridiculousness, sadness and joy through the simplest of means. On entering, the crowd all fills out our own lists of favourite childhood toys to hand in at the door. This becomes part of the show in a variation on the standard reading of lists - with a performer categorising the toys as she goes.
The concept is fascinating and at first the audience is intrigued - the questions all yield such a variety of answers which provide insight into how different, and similar, human lives are. The lists are performed in a range of ways - sometimes the answers without the question, at other times over other answers - stripping them of their context which makes it even more bizarre. Different lists have different kinds of music to accompany them, and the methods of performance have been carefully picked to reflect the content of the lists they are reading. The questions are important ones, digging into peoples greatest fears, and biggest hopes. Some of the questions are funny, and others meaningful. Some questions yield typical answers, while others are odd and some even a little disturbing.
However, ultimately the entire show was a series of lists, and no matter how varied the methods of performance or the questions were, the theme and content began to feel repetitive. As such the show failed to engage throughout. While the idea is incredibly interesting and innovative, it simply didn't translate into an hour long performance.
For tickets and more information visit the Ed Fringe website.
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