@adamscottrowley’s “You Are Going to Die” offers a transgressive exploration into the nature of mortality. Think The Myth of Sisyphus rewritten by Samuel Beckett and performed—entirely naked— by Mr. Bean…

From the outset, Rowley, nude and hunched on a toilet, combines the primitive and the #timeless. His #body, daubed in sparse patches of dull paint, is both a canvas & a symbol of the inevitability of decay. Given certain angles and lighting, his face resembles a skull 💀; the grey patches on his skin, the flesh of a rotting corpse. He is King Lear’s “bare, forked animal”, stripped down to its most elemental form in the face of the abyss…

Navigating through a multiverse of vignettes, we’re introduced to a mesmerising array of personalities, from an elderly tap-dancer to a young #influencer telling us without telling us she’s trapped in a well. Strange tragedy and delightful comic relief are continually served together in Kafka-flavoured paradoxes…

Rowley's versatility knows no bounds. The contours of his #face work wonders, morphing from old man to young girl; from innocent to goulish with fluidity. His mimetic prowess transforms him from a silent, muscle-flexing being uttering nothing but "BLOKE", to what can best be described as a cackling #gremlin showcasing his bumhole…

…which leads us to the show’s fearless approach to #taboo. Watching a man amorously “rim” a toilet may not be the (only) reason you came to the #theatre, but it is a brilliant send up of our sanitised approach to mortality. Life, let’s face it, is messy and horny and often repulsive— Rowley embraces the profane and the profound, challenging us to see beauty and horror in tandem…

And, oh, the climax! 😂 🤣 A crowd-pleasing, brilliantly vulgar spectacle (#NoSpoilers), it serves as a jubilant, much-needed, collective catharsis. This crescendo of absurdity culminating in Rowley’s abrupt, understated exit is reminiscent of life's unpredictable, often anticlimactic… ⚰️ 5/5

#edfringe #edinburghfringe #fringe #theatre #comedy @summerhallery #edfringe2023 #fillyerboots