Writer: Sean Gregory

Director: Sean Gregory

Reviewer: Deborah Klayman

The Public Reviews Rating:

Insightful and incisive, Script In Hand is largely a play comparing the treatment of typographer Paul Renner under the Nazi regime with that of the piece’s leading man in the present day. Carefully crafted and intelligently written, Sean Gregory’s superb script jumps up from the page and challenges the audience to think about the way in which we express ourselves and the disparate ways that a man can be silenced.

With an outstanding central performance from Paul Warriner and strong support from Stewart Lockwood, the piece begins and ends with Renner and his vision. The creator of the Futura font, beloved by Kubrick and the architects of the space race, Renner was an opponent of the Nazi regime – as a result spending several years in internal exile. He firmly believed the human race should always be looking forward, and this being the case the play posits that he would perhaps not have appreciated a retrospective of his life. This seeming conflict allows the production to move forward in surprising directions, utilising a mix of supreme naturalism and stylistic scenes and topped off with some amazing visuals.

Beginning as an actor’s bitter rant about being undervalued and overlooked but developing in the most unexpected of ways, this piece is engaging from start to finish with a good measure of drama and intrigue in between. Warriner’s commanding presence and instant audience rapport mean you instantly warm to him, so when he hands you a script you feel you’d better just go with it. Postmodern, funny, acerbic and brilliant: Script In Hand is all of these things but is a play that needs to be seen, not read about.

Until 18th August.

Tags: 2012, Edinburgh Fringe, Joel Clements., Paul Warriner, Piece of Work, Rosie Scott, Script in Hand, Sean Gregory, Stewart Lockwood, Summerhall, Theatre