As I leave the theatre, someone beside me makes a comment about the show we have both just seen – “ a breath of fresh air” and there certainly is a real energy and positive spirit in the work and movement of O Vertigo.

This solo show is set simply in a student flat with a striped bedcover, a guitar and a TV. A lanky, limber,  rangy figure runs in, throws off his jacket and shoes, collapses on the bed and turns on the TV. The stuff of prosaic normality and clever freestyle dance and lip syncing sets up a youthful and easy-access personality and a familiar scenario.  A cool dude with great moves and self confidence – on the television, his counterpart / alter ego, casts doubts and derision, questions perfect- ness, and from the screen gains the remote and proceeds to totally alter the balance of control.

Interesting, quirky, accessible and at times predictable, Edmonds pulls the transition from on screen to out of screen off with flair and a dark sense of humour. For me the problem comes in the uncertainty of direction. Is a clearer decision either to sustain or to progress the new reality needed? or is the ambiguity deliberate and part of the uncertainty of knowing who we are? The music layers lyrics into the mix a little too much and the undoubted athleticism and dance ability is not enough to entirely sustain the ideas. Big questions of identity, impressions, who we are in terms of our own view and how we want others to see us, changes of perspectives, control and appearances- in this age of Artificial Intelligence – who really is the real person?

His struggle to leave the space and his ultimate disappearance is an effective end. “Time is turning…” “I was never your friend… “ unsettling responses smile at us in the shape of a talented young man with big ideas and with the confidence to speak out.

The lack of a programme and production information at the theatre makes it impossible to credit music or production support for this one man dance work,  but I O Vertigo  is a short show that is well worth a look.

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