Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre reviews: The Rejects | All the Glorious Moments in Between | Terminal: A Play About 0 Planes, 1 Person, and a 6-Hour Delay | Lash | Locusts | Midnight Building

Our latest round-up of Fringe theatre review includes an assured comedy about the stress of competitive job interviews, an uplifting celebration of friendship and beauty, and an offbeat meditation on the hellish limbo of being stuck at an airport.

The Rejects

The Rejects ****

The Space on the Mile (Venue 39), until 26 August (even dates only)

Five young people being interviewed for the same dead end job forms the basis of this impressive debut by writer Jess Ferrier. The sense of mutual suspicion eases as the candidates agree to a post-interview drink, and as one drink turns into an evening, the rejection emails start to arrive.

It’s a simple but effective scenario written with such acuity, pace and wit that it becomes more than the sum of its parts. Directed by Ian Dunn for new Edinburgh-based theatre collective Shark Bait, it’s performed with verve and ability by the five young actors.

The characters are strongly drawn, from the conciliatory people-pleaser who once dreamed of going to art school (Robyn Reilly), to the flirtacious one whose biggest strength might be her sense of middle-class entitlement (Ferrier herself), to the one who is simply desperate for a job to pay her electricity bill and start repaying her debts (Isla Campbell).

There’s the one who wears a sharp suit because he hasn’t told his family he lost his last job six months ago (Lex Joyce) and the enigmatic one (Abi Price) who turns out to have a psychology degree and enjoys playing with people’s expectations. As the pub quiz gets underway, there are deceptions, admissions and confidences, but there can be only one winner.

It’s an indictment on a society which leaves so many able people languishing in McJobs to pay the bills, but that’s almost taken for granted. As an assured comedy where the pace rarely falters, laced with quick-fire dialogue, this is an incredibly promising debut for writer and company alike.

Susan Mansfield

4/ 4/ 4: 4 Real Asians, 4 White Men, 4 Fake Asians ****theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9) until 19 August

This is what happens when cultural appropriation goes meta. As the title summarises, four actors described as ‘Asian’ play four white men who play four ‘fake Asians’: people who have created alternative versions of themselves to appeal to a world where Asian stereotypes are fetishised for being interesting, cool or exotic. To add to the confusion, the performers keep slipping in and out of character. Trying to keep track, as well as work out what it’s all about, is a mind melting but thought provoking experience in a show that ultimately asks it will ever be possible to live in the ‘post-racial world’ of a new ‘woke’ TV sitcom that tries, and fails, to contain the action.