WIt may be that a cabaret involving pickled vegetables is funny. The stars of different nights do not usually count gherkins, onions and carrots in their number, even lowering the fee. We can also share an interest in what the creator and performer Ruxandra Canir have to say about the obsession with picking his native Moldova.
But what’s next? That canir would choose to stay tight about the habits of cooking his home country had no big deal, or even this little show talks about the theme of life, death and care. That he had little ideas about what to do with his pickled vegetables introduced to them, certainly.
They look noticeable. Designed by Fergus Dunnet in the production of Shona Reppe, which is part of the showcase made in Scotland, they are brave and speculative. To play an onion, he covers a white knit jumper on his head and announces a tuft of stringy hair. His potato is a dirty amorphous lump, its chits grow in the course of the show. Gherkin is very large, tall, erect, very green – and likes dancing.
Tomatoes are just tomatoes and every punchline of a corny joke they get in the ketchup.
So far it is noteworthy, but with the exception of a few lipsyncing in a funny song by John Kielty and an apocalyptic speech of a baby carrot, he has nothing to do with his creations. He uses clown and mime techniques to describe being trapped in a pickle jar, fearless suffering that is not mentioned love or eagerly waiting to be selected for consumption, but there are few ideas to justify the length of each scene.
Instead, the show depends on the enthusiasm of an accepted willing audience that slides into cabaret mode and enjoy every new vegetable that looks like a genius work. Without their whoops and hollers, it would seem like a very thin piece of work.
In Summerhall, Edinburgh, until 25 August
