76th Edinburgh Fringe: REVIEW
"Few shows at the Fringe will be able to maximise the stories they're telling with the venues they are based in, yet Expial Atrocious hit it out of the park with Butchered at Underbelly."
BUTCHERED
Written & Performed by
Expial Atrocious
underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/butchered
August 15, 2023
Repetition has never looked so pleasurable and mundane as the Master Sausage's simple task of making sausages for them ‘above’ who has their routine abruptly interrupted by The Apprentice, who has been sent to help them. The quiet calm of the unchanging routine is now broken. The Master and the Apprentice struggle to find their connection, leading to a surprising, if inevitable, conclusion for the pair.
On walking into the space, and after being encouraged to sit in the front row because there was zero audience participation, we witness Ez Holland, Master Sausage, and Nic Lawton, The Apprentice, moving about the stage in unison. A subtle soundscape carries from the butcher's block to various points across the stage. Over and over again, the pair moves in perfect choreography, and the more they do it, the more menacing and haunting it becomes.
Expial Atrocious is what you come to the fringe for. Hands down, their bizarre, weird, and darkly humorous play is visionary. There is a detail in the writing and performance that one would attribute to the likes of Sarah Kane, Philip Ridley, Caryl Churchill, debbie tucker green, or Jez Butterworth. British playwrights who beautifully use language to create their other-worlds, powerfully using these words to breathe truth, honesty, life, feeling, and a wave of deep emotions that make their characters real.
Nic Lawton and Ez Holland have created a show that is unlike anything you are likely to see at the Edinburgh Fringe. This show gains strength from Holland and Lawton’s complete commitment to their characters and the world that they’ve created for them. The second The Master Sausage meets The Apprentice, there is a tension created between them that is maintained for the rest of the show. It never breaks, and they never stumble; you can cut it with a knife. What they do is make you fully believe in the hell they are in, aided by a level of movement and sound that powerfully convinces you of their world. Little is given away; all the audience knows is that they are below in the bowels of some place, and the sole duty of the Master Sausage is to make sure that food goes up.
The choreography that’s been created for the show allows Holland and Lawton to catapult this absurd reality into a believable one. And the use of mime, timed to sound, creates something else altogether unique that positions this production in a highly recommended category. In crafting this work, Expial Atrocious has connected to something that is so salient in British theatre: never underestimate the power of your imagination and how that freedom can create worlds and stories that can leave an indelible mark on your audience. New or emerging theatre companies should take a page out of Expial Atrocious book, who have really taken a risk with Butchered, and yet the results are something utterly beguiling, fresh, and darkly original.
It was impossible not to stand up once the show finished. Few shows at the Fringe will be able to maximise the stories they're telling with the venues they are based in, yet Expial Atrocious hit it out of the park with Butchered at Underbelly. They leave you wanting to know more and wanting to understand more. If you are content with your daily routine, be it forced or voluntary, does that make you happy? Trust me, you will leave with questions.
"Few shows at the Fringe will be able to maximise the stories they're telling with the venues they are based in, yet Expial Atrocious hit it out of the park with Butchered at Underbelly."