All In


Atresbandes
Summerhall

All In achieves everything that it sets out to do, namely to "take a wild ride through vastly different, seemingly unconnected worlds".

These worlds are isolated from each other, but the theme running through every scene is an examination of peer-pressure and the tyranny of the crowd. Whether it is through obvious dictatorship or simply friends asserting different opinions, the message that it’s hard to be an individual is a clear one.

This choice of staging, however, does make the piece disjointed with an array of lights, music, dispassionate conversations and an extended clowning scene that makes solid observations about society but does so in a rather long-winded way.

This company is deliberately pushing its audience, playing with form and working from a melting pot of ideas. Visually and academically, All In ticks all the right boxes but this scientific approach renders the show cold and a little blunt.

Reviewer: Amy Yorston

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