DID YOU MEAN TO FALL LIKE THAT?  at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★

“has all the ideas for a really interesting production, but perhaps just needs a bit more focus”

Charlie (James McGregor) is an FX trainer in his mid-30s and he’s going through a divorce. So, he does what any single person freshly out of a relationship would do and gets on the dating apps. He makes new friends, moves into a new flat, even reignites a spark with an old flame. Stephanie Martin’s latest play Did You Mean to Fall Like That? is the tale of one man trying to get his life back together, whilst maybe making some new self-discoveries along the way.

McGregor finds a tenderness and vulnerability in Charlie, and as the story progresses he does slowly but surely get us very much on side. There’s a very nervous energy at the start, as if he’s uncomfortable having to talk to an audience about this (and maybe he is) so it does take a little more effort from the audience to get on board. A bit more of a controlled start to the storytelling, really making sure those early beats (and especially the humour) lands would really help us is ease into it.

One of the strengths of Martin’s writing is the way she sets up Charlie’s life and the external circumstances, particularly in terms of him not having a child. He and his wife were trying IVF, and I can’t quite recall if this was the catalyst for the divorce or if it was other things, but either way Martin does a fairly brutal thing of planting him in a world surrounded by children. Whether it’s ending up in a children’s playground, playing with his nephew, or probably the most difficult, seeing a woman who he could’ve maybe ended up with having a child herself. It’s a quietly tragic thing that reoccurs within the text and within his story. These moments however need to be made more of to really stick as emotional points in the play, either in the writing or in the pacing of the production, which tends to jump around quite abruptly from moment to moment, rather than letting us into Charlie’s mind, to see how the external factors are distressing him and causing change.

A later plot point in which Charlie realises he might have romantic or sexual feelings for another man is a bit shoehorned in, and sort of comes out of nowhere. It feels like a really key part of Martin’s story that needs more seed-planting and time to grow. There’s also an odd inconsistency in the text in which Charlie who is generally soft and gentle will suddenly drop a swear word or graphic reference, which feels often out of place and makes it that little bit harder for us to be on side with him.

Joel Moffett’s Sound Design is a good support in setting up atmosphere and emotional turning points, always feeling like it plays with the text and tone rather than against it. There’s a gorgeous moment where the volume in a club scene builds and then does a subtle drop at a key plot twist, which is really impactful.

It has all the ideas for a really interesting production, but perhaps just needs a bit more focus and less rushing through the emotional beats of the story. Still, it’s a pleasant enough hour and touches on themes which I’m sure will be pertinent for many.

DID YOU MEAN TO FALL LIKE THAT? at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Pleasance Courtyard – Bunker Three

Reviewed on 15th August 2024

by Joseph Dunitz

Photography by Lexi Clare

DID YOU MEAN TO FALL LIKE THAT

DID YOU MEAN TO FALL LIKE THAT

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