EDINBURGH FRINGE: The Trials, by Dawn King (abridged) at thespaceuk on the mile*****

Navigating the Fringe is always a matter of trial and error, so when you find something really special you want to shout it from the rooftops.

Unfortunately, I only happened on this show a couple of days before it ends. But its message will stay with me forever and, by writing this review, I hope others will remember it too.

For generations people have been taking whatever they want: houses, cars, holidays, all take their toll on our ailing planet. Now these jetsetters are being held to account, and they are being euthanised for the damage they have knowingly or unknowingly done to the earth to make way for a new generation who care and are aware, if indeed there is a future.

Fact or fiction? Could this be a reality in years to come? The term climate change is now being called the climate crisis and young people are making their voices heard, not least students from a school in East Sussex whose show is so hard-hitting as to be almost brutal. 

Nine teenagers are given the task of deciding whether ‘the dinosaurs’ (people of their parents’ age and older) should be allowed to survive in a world which lacks resources. Most of their parents have died in wild fires or flash floods and those who remain are being condemned.

As dinosaurs appear on screen to plead their cases, this powerful production explores power, ethics and survival and plunges audiences into a moral quagmire.

The Trials is at thespaceuk on the mile at 11.05am until Aug 22 (50 mins) www.thespaceuk.com