BELLRINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“Paul Adefeya and Luke Rollason command the small space of the Roundabout Theatre without difficulty”

Daisy Hall’s Bellringers is a vividly imagined take on climate change, set somewhere in a possible future for the Cotswolds. A shortlisted play for the Women’s Prize in Playwriting, Bellringers is another coproduction by Atticist and Ellie Keel Productions, the same team that brought the luminous SAP to the Roundabout Theatre in 2022. Director Jessica Lazar is also on board once more, which means the show is in good hands. Despite all the supporting talent, however, and the competence of performers Paul Adeyefa and Luke Rollason, it doesn’t provide much of a journey for its leading characters. Set in a bell tower to the accompaniment of ceaseless rain and a gathering storm, two bellringers debate the world’s fate, and their own.

Bellringers takes place in an apocalyptic future where uncertainty about the world’s climate has driven scientific knowledge to the margins. In the place of radar and reliable weather reports, humans watch their environment for portents. They are keenly aware that they are living on borrowed time, as the sea moves inland and covers once productive land. Two monkish figures, Aspinall and Clement, have been assigned the task of ringing the bells. But it’s never clear whether they are supposed to ring the bells to warn their neighbourhood of an oncoming storm, or use the sound to drive the storm away. The two friends are also aware that ringing the bells could mean instant annihilation. The ceaseless rain has soaked everything, including the bell ropes.

It’s a dramatic situation, and the two friends are sympathetic characters. But there’s only so much one can do to pass the time waiting for a storm to strike the bell tower. Clement, the skeptic, and Aspinall the believer, spend a certain amount of time arguing like medieval philosophers, except that Clement can still remember a world where humans figured out what was going on by using the scientific method. Aspinall prefers the prophecies of his mother’s almanac. Both are afflicted by bad dreams, and an invasion of mushrooms.

Under Jessica Lazar’s assured direction, Paul Adefeya (Aspinall) and Luke Rollason (Clement) command the small space of the Roundabout Theatre without difficulty. Natalie Johnson’s set defines the boundaries with benches and bell ropes. But it’s sound designer Holly Khan and lighting designer David Doyle who create an experience so intense that one is never quite sure whether that is a real storm outside the Roundabout’s tent, or the sound and lighting effects of this talented team. Doyle and Khan use the limitations of the venue to maximum effect. All that Adefeya and Rollason have to do is to take that claustrophobic atmosphere of impending doom and run with it. Nevertheless, the script labours to maintain the suspense, even for seventy minutes. The mushroom theme reminds us that we have visited apocalyptic futures of renegade vegetable life before.

Bellringers offers no solution for our troubled bellringers, or any hope that they can somehow save what’s left of humanity in their village below. Daisy Hall’s vision is a bleak one, despite the wit and humour in the sparring between the two friends. Its visionary quality does offer a respite from overly naturalistic dramas, though. So if you like theatre that stretches the imagination while remaining firmly rooted in contemporary ecological issues, Bellringers is an easy pick at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.