ED FRINGE 2024 REVIEW: FOR THE LOVE OF SPAM

FOR THE LOVE OF SPAM
Beside, Pleasance Courtyard

For a play to really stick with a audience’s mind, leaving them having felt enlighted regarding a culture or theme in which they might have come in with prior knowledge of, can be quite a hard feat, when there are thousands of shows to pick from, and so many in which you will see throughout the limited time you might be up in the capital. Emerging CHamoru/Filipina theatre maker Sierra Sevilla, originally from the island of Guam, has in this instance captured a reality in which is so different to the normal white person gauze; the stories have a punchiness tone that makes you feel seen for the wrong reasons, and where laughs are often proceeded with cliff- faced silence, and never has an end for a show felt so bleak, which feels miles away from the production’s striking, salmon coloured, spam-filled poster. It’s a raw and intimate performance from Sevilla, and even though maybe parts of the staging don’t exactly engage you with the distance away from you depending where you are sat in this shipping container of a theatre space, you can still try and find a way to feel fully realised in the weaved journey you go on for 60 minutes.