The anatomy lecture theatre at Summerhall, formerly a veterinary college, makes the perfect setting for a play about Victorian men’s ambition, hubris and faith in the burgeoning science of the day.
Adam Riches’ The Captain, set in the last quarter of the 19th Century, begins with a prop to which the room is no stranger: a gurney. Under it, we’re told, is the first man to have successfully swum across the English Channel, Matthew Webb. Telling us this is the eccentric Fred Beckwith (Riches), his coach.
What’s remarkable about the one-man play is that the gurney and a blackboard are the only props, Riches the only performer, and yet with no lighting rig (the house lights stay up), no sound effects, projection nor score, he conjures up a whole world. The play not only takes us into the feat itself, but also the rivals, the preceding and proceeding tabloid efforts to make it pay, and finally an introspective turn by Beckwith which injects the yarn with genuine pathos.
It all hangs on a commanding performance from Riches, which will come as a surprise to no one who saw his 2024 Jimmy Connors play Jimmy. Three weeks into his own endurance test – the Edinburgh Fringe – he, like Webb, shows he’s got the mettle to keep us rapt.
Adam Riches: The Captain, Summerhall, until 31 Aug, various times