Actor Jade Anouka’s debut play, Heart, has been kept tantalisingly on the horizon since the start of the pandemic. It was set to be staged at London’s Kiln theatre in 2020 but, within a week of that announcement, UK theatres closed their doors. Now, it arrives for a three-night run at the tail end of the Edinburgh fringe.
And within the first minute you know you’re in safe hands. Supremely assured in this in-the-round space, Anouka is also in sync with her accompanist Grace Savage, whose beatboxing and electro-pop provides a near constant soundtrack. Heart is a monologue but this production is very much a two-hander.
