Blood Harmony – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Eve de Leon Allen, Keshini Misha and Philippa Hogg in Blood Harmony at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Picture: Lottie Amor

Blood Harmony continues at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (dates and times vary up to 28 August 2022).

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Traverse One sits deep in the bowels of the building in the West End. The stage is dressed as an attic: cluttered with boxes, ephemera from childhood, a half covered piano and a folded up camp bed among the strewn stage. The frame of the house roof is above the attic, convincing us that we are now up at the top of a building.

This is the telling of the reunion of three sisters: Anna (Philippa Hogg), Maia (Keshini Misha) and the youngest, Chloe (Eve de Leon Allen). Anna and Maia have travelled to the former family home for their mother’s funeral. The opening sequence is sung through in a haunting, lyrical style as the three voices are blended to perfection and the physical movements suggest being pulled in together by a strong force, centring on the home.

Each sister has a ‘type’ of character – Anna is rather brisk and likes to be in charge; Maia is a bit of a dreaming drifter with a smart answer for everything; Chloe has been a stay at home carer for their Mum and fears a future without Mum. Chloe has no goals or challenges, just a massive amount of nervous energy.

The staging and fabulous lighting effectively conveys both text and subtext in parallel. Using the haunting songs from The Staves (an English folk song group, comprising three sisters) the subtext of push and pull between the sisters in the story and trying to establish what ‘home’ means is exquisitely realised through voices and movement with the focus pulling out and closing in to each sister in turn.

As they explore their characters and try to find their futures, these three women draw the audience in so closely and intimately.

Written by Matthew Bulgo and co-directed/choreographed by Jess Williams and Jonnie Riordan, this is as fascinating a show as you will find. Full of beauty, wonder and a deep understanding of how to convey familial relationships, this production cannot be recommended highly enough. A special mention for the lighting design by Charly Dunford – the light is used as a metaphor for ‘home’ and how it chases away dark and loneliness. The different kinds of light – bare lamps, strip lights and overall washes are all so precise – an essential, integral part of the whole performance.

We almost become part of this family and leave the attic behind as the house lights come up with a sense of hope and purpose. In the end ‘home’ is about people more than ‘place’.

Utterly breathtaking.

Fiona Orr