Spaces – Sweet Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Spaces is a four-hander about the multiple stresses and pressures of being young and female. It is staged with a certain  imagination, and the four women who perform it are engaging and committed. However, their material has a level of earnestness that quickly becomes patronising. Playing university students, each struggles with personal difficulties (anxiety, divorcing parents, sexuality, religion, race) but learn that supporting one other is essential to tackle their problems. Lacking nuance beyond the bright-eyed message that we all need to listen to one another and that it is ok to be different, the show provides explanation rather than insight. The effect is close to watching a public information film.