PLUCK offers a refreshingly innocent shelter from the grimy fall-out of creative desperation that so many shows inflict on Edinburgh audiences each August. This year the sprightly string trio take their audience on a fateful trip on the RMS Titanic. It's all aboard for jolly japes as Shakespearean-style cross-dressing and unrequited love cause confusion and chaos, performed to the tune of impeccably played violin, viola and cello.
While the musicians' mothers no doubt envisaged their talented offspring gracing the salons and opera theatres of Europe, it's our good fortune to be able to witness the performers' remarkable talent for constructing garden furniture or gliding across the stage on wheels while never stumbling in their renditions of Mozart, Rossini and the occasional jig.
Admittedly, their songs, while well executed, seem to be steering somewhat off course from the main plot. But despite specialising in the absurd, so evocative is Pluck's playing that their performance in the scene when the ship goes down creates an unexpected glistening in the eyes of more than a few of the audience. Thankfully, the trio leave us with a happy ending and spirits uplifted, as we head out into the less-refined chaos of the rest of the Fringe once more.
By Fiona McGregor
