It is pretty unusual to be be asked to have a nap during a Fringe show, not that this hasn't stopped many of us at some point drooping our heads in one of the many dark, muggy rooms. Sylvia Rimat is trying to make sure we remember her show and chilling out or even napping after we've experienced an event can help you remember it, apparently.
Rimat goes to great lengths to make the show memorable. Ironically it's difficult to remember much of what Rimat said as these memories have been jostled out of the way by the memories of the random things that happened to make the show memorable.
Random is most definitely the word for this show, right from the word go. Half a dozen members of the audience are chosen to come in separately, I happened to be one of them, taken outside the building and round the back and then introduced to the audience.
Rimat is rather mysterious in her methods. Once we have been introduced, we return to the audience and she does not really refer to us again. There is further audience interaction with more people coming onto stage. It is not, however, as fun as some other audience interaction, for instance in Gym Party on the same stage.
Two buckets of chalk into which Rimat continually presses her bare feet allow her to leave an ever-growing series of tracks across the stage, reminding us and her of where she has been. Simple ideas like this help to strengthen the show. Also there are extacts from some interviews recorded with memory experts, to add a little science to proceedings; thankfully the academics in question are not too dry.
Like our memories, the show jumps around, the joys of Skype—a feature this year at Summerhall with Long Distance Affair entirely Skyped—Rimat takes us to the future: Sydney, Australia. It's not really time travel, they're just ahead of us, but live interaction from across the globe is still very cool.
One particular part of the show is very memorable, not the first animal that's been on stage here, what with Major Tom's bassett hound, (the venue is a former veterinary college incidentally). However I won't spoil the surprise as you won't be expecting this creature on the stage.