EDINBURGH FRINGE: The Sound of Water at thespace@venue45*****

Wild dancing and hillbilly music sets the scene for this powerful piece by a young company from North Carolina. Or does it?

The American West has been ravaged by drought for the last six years and writer, director and founder of Center Heart Theater Company, Julia Ott, imagines what it will be like if towns dry up, crops are lost and residents begin to evacuate.

It’s insightful,  thought-provoking and, at times, profoundly moving, acted out with youthful exuberance, especially from the actress playing Katherine, who finds water in underground canyons, undetected by satellites, while her peers are measuring decreasing water levels above ground and plant sensors in the ground to find out which areas are still fertile. 

They talk of the days when there was a river as big as the sea which dried up once factories, pesticides and automation took over.

With showers limited to two a week lasting only two minutes, and computers which are looked on as lifelines having to shut down because there is no longer any money to run the generators, it’s a bleak picture, lightened only when Katherine finds love for the first time in the tenderest of scenes with Jacob…before nature strikes back.

I also loved the dance scenes depicting Katherine swimming down to the caves, bathed in a blue light, or through rocks – beautifully and thoughtfully choreographed.

Ott is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and her cast are fellow alumni. UNCSA should be proud.

The Sound of Water is at thespace@venue45 at 11.05am until Aug 23. (50 mins) www.thespaceUK.com