The Edinburgh Fringe is well and truly underway, and as it heads into its final week, The Skarsgard Effect, playing at the Space @ Niddry Street, is fully embracing its time to shine.
When triplet sisters Emelia, Linda and Natalie create a lie using chatGPT about being bastard Skarsgard children, suddenly lots of doors are opened that were previously closed. But fame, the pressure of keeping a lie and the difficulty behind hiding a serious lack of talent now threaten to break apart this troublesome trio.
Ellen Eklund plays Emelia, excellently monologuing to the audience and being the sister the other two follow, even if they doubt her abilities and question her motives. Eklund reminds the audience of Emelia’s motives while remaining endearing even when making bad decisions at almost every turn. Eklund also wrote the piece, imbuing each character with personality and making the story fast-paced and engaging.
Nualla MacGregor makes her portrayal of Natalie very funny. The line delivery is confident and their physical comedy excellent. MacGregor makes sure that Natalie is always light and warm yet showing a sharper side that is fun to watch. Co-writing a fun, real-life-mocking, yet annoyingly catchy song with Eklund, MacGregor demonstrates multi-faceted talent weaved into this production.
Charley Krooks is Linda, managing to be the whiny, more emotional sibling while not making her character one note or annoying in the slightest. Krooks delivers laughs and likeability in equal measure. Each performer makes each of their characters feel like believable sisters, demonstrating closeness and finding emotionally effecting moments to dive into, only adding to the immersion and effectiveness of the piece.
Ewan Little takes on the mammoth task of playing “Everyone Else”; a character description that isn’t inaccurate. At times switching between 5 different characters in the space of two minutes while flawlessly transitioning to the exuberant narrator of the show, Little hilariously leaves an impact and adds perfectly to each scene.
Sarah Marie Mooney’s Direction here is strong. The play moves at a break-neck pace but each character is delved into nicely and fully fledged. Scene transitions happen before the audience has time to react and the slightly smaller space is used to great effect. The Technical Direction from James Sharp is attuned. The lighting cues snap suddenly and there are lots of sound effects at use, all of which are timed excellently and designed to fit tonally right alongside the action on stage.
The Skarsgard Effect has a creative premise that, in a short runtime, tackles important and prominent themes or issues; ChatGPT and AI usage in general, nepo babies and their uses, broken families and sibling dynamics. All while being a funny, immensely entertaining piece of theatre that feels perfect for the Fringe and is one that is definitely not to be missed.
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