The Wreck ★★★★

The Wreck marks the Edinburgh Fringe return of Buzzcut, who were last at Summerhall with Bark Bark, an ambitious show that technically seemed just beyond the company’s grasp. This new production proves that experience can be a great teacher, as this time the company’s camera work, puppetry, live music and performances work seamlessly.

The Wreck is essentially a sweet tale about two siblings having to decide what to do with their family’s seaside nightclub. Eddie (Morgan Beale) has returned to his hometown ostensibly to help his sister Ira (Camilla Anvar) take care of the family business now that both their parents are deceased. Days are spent silently diving together, exploring a shipwreck they’ve just discovered. Evenings are spent squabbling and catching up with each other’s lives at the discotheque. And so it goes, back and forth, for 50 minutes.

Filmmaker Wes Anderson is referred to in The Wreck’s program description, and the production shares a problem that Anderson’s most recent films — particularly The Phoenician Scheme and Asteroid City — often have. They look amazing and have undeniable style, but the scripts don’t burrow deep enough in story or character to garner a strong emotional response. So while The Wreck is sufficiently enjoyable as it happens, once finished it slides too quickly from memory, like a boat floating away for lack of an anchor.

Nonetheless, writer and director Gabe Windsor knows how to assemble visual theatre magic with his talented creative team — Beckett Gray, Cat Rock, Tiffer Cundy, Han Sayles, and Faye James — and their gentle approach to live cinema is consistently charming and engagingly inventive. Once Buzzcut learns how to amp up the drama, their theatrical treasures will feel less buried.