It wouldn't be Edinburgh unless there was one piece of theatre over which everyone could get their knickers in a twist.
The 2011 Manufactured Outrage Award goes to this slick and specious work from Belgian provocateurs Ontroerend Goed, which examines the role - and collusion - of audience members in shows they watch.
It's playful stuff initially, as performers outline the "rules" for viewing theatre before training a video camera on us and supplying our "thoughts". Base instincts are laid intriguingly bare: we feel a guilty pleasure in watching our fellows being thrust into the spotlight, while crossing our fingers it doesn't happen to us. Then things turn nasty, as a performer starts to insult a young woman. He won't stop, he says, until she spreads her legs. The camera remains fixed on her lap. What should we do?
One noble soul leapt up to bat the camera away but my reaction was ennui, largely at the column inches this was bound to provoke. If you pay to see late-night experimental theatre called Audience, is this entirely unexpected? The show comes to Soho in December, so start stoking those fires of righteous indignation.
Until August 28 (0131 225 7001, edfringe.com).
Audience
St George's West
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