Callum Patrick Hughes brings a different style of storytelling to the Edinburgh Fringe this year. He has moved away from his stories about family and personal struggles, which has earned him an accolade of stars and excellent reviews.
He has metaphorically moved across to California this Fringe and retelling through music and storytelling Nathanael West’s 1930’s Great American Novel, The Day of The Locust.
As the sun rages down upon California, the wildfires are raging through the forests around Hollywood. In the 1930s, there wasn’t the technology we had today, and Hughes bought it up to date by adding mobile phones to the storyline. With that said, interjected throughout the storyline are the mobile alerts going off warning residents of the imminent dangers.
I especially liked the imagery that Hughes describes about the artwork around the city. From the large mural of the cruise liner to the synthetic water fall. In the land of Hollywood where illusions and reality merge to create an effective backdrop. People are there eating lunch and doing “everyday” things.
The police are setting up checkpoint areas to stop people entering fire risk zones and due to the amount of film sets that pop up all the time, locals aren’t sure if these checkpoints are for safety or just another film set!
Hughes storytelling is superb, and from his descriptions, you can imagine the dust, feel the intensity of the heat, and chaos that all of these events are causing.
Yet, in the chaos, life is continuing. The same people are still building relationships, hurting one another, and dying. As a man coming to Hollywood to chase his dream, he finds himself making friends with a random group of people who at some point have been in the acting industry. Their lives all entwine and bring their own chaos to the story.
As he chases his dreams, he realises that the reality of making it in tinsel town is as wild and unpredictable as the wild fires chasing into Hollywood.
Reality and fantasy merge throughout the performance, much as I imagine Hollywood to be. The only reality in this tale lies in the destructive hands of mother nature.
For more information about Day of the Locust, please use the link below.
Four Stars.
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
Leave a comment