Winging It – Ed Fringe 2023

Winging It: theSpace on the Mile – Space 3

21st August 2023

★★★★★

Following four college students, this new coming-of-age pop-rock musical follows four college students on their adventure to turning 18 in a week’s time. Writer Lydia Whitbread manages to include family quarrels, heartbreak and figuring out how to pay tax into one relatable story with original music.

Winging It isn’t afraid to tackle hard storylines and does so sympathetically and realistically. Fundamentally, this is about four young adults, trying to decide what they want to do with their life. Within the show, there is probably at least one cast character most people can relate to whether it is the high flyer student whose parents want them to go to university or the student that just doesn’t know what to do with their life yet. The production is cleverly written and is a well rounded, thought invoking piece highlighting the struggles young people face.

Bethan Green, Amelia Perry and Damien Smith particularly stand out for the amount of raw emotion they put into their performances but all of the cast are fully committed to the characters and the result is a powerful, slick piece of theatre. The characters are believable and the emotion shown is excellent. Instantly the audience is drawn into the stories of these four teenagers as they embark on the next stage of their life. There are hard issues tackled such as self identity, mental health, the fear of failure and these are all dealt with sensitively and with due care and thought.

Winging It features a cleverly written original score where each performer is able to shine through their individual songs, and yet the ensemble numbers are equally as powerful and moving. One slight bugbear is that, despite the characters being English, the songs are often performed with an American twang/accent.

This is a must watch for this years Fringe – whether you are at a crossroads in your life or not you’ll be able to relate to some of these experiences and struggles. Like the show concludes with ‘the grass may not be greener, but you’ll be alright’.

For information and tickets click here.