★★★★
Written by Yilong Liu, The Book of Mountains and Seas is an examination of grief and loss. Archie’s dad meets up with his late son’s boyfriend Andrew to enlist his help on a mission: visit all 179 places that Archie reviewed on his Yelp page. At first Andrew is reluctant to help: Archie has been dead for almost as long as they were dating, and he wants to move on. However, after some compromise (and a little bit of blackmail in the form of a negative review left for Andrew’s photography business), he agrees to help for just one week. What follows is a captivating tale of unlikely friendship.
A key theme of the show is grief, and how we process death differently. Archie’s dad is determined to keep his son’s spirit alive, and sends gifts and care packages to Andrew regularly, to the point that Andrew feels like Archie still lives with him. He becomes so consumed in visiting every place his son reviewed that it leads to the breakdown of his marriage, as like Andrew, his wife wishes to move on. Andrew cannot understand why he is determined to do this, but as their bond grows, he explains that he believes the Yelp reviews are a message left from Archie, as he had deleted everything else off his phone before he died. Andrew’s revelation is shocking, but forces him to come to terms with Archie’s death.
There are strong performances from the actors involved, particularly Archie, who pops in every so often to give his review of the place that his dad and Andrew are visiting. He is wonderfully charismatic and his reviews have a visceral quality to them, making it easy to picture the dishes that he is describing. The actor playing Andrew is clearly nervous which makes him seem a bit stiff, especially in the opening scenes. He does relax as the show goes on, but it would have been nice to see him express more emotion from the start. The use of the spotlight, which the characters adjust between scenes, adds an extra dimension to the play, tying in the photography theme throughout.
A beautifully written play, The Book of Mountains and Seas will make you laugh, cry, and feel all the emotions in between.
The Book of Mountains and Seas will be performed at Pleasance Courtyard – Beneath at 1:05pm until 25 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe 2024.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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