A friend, an intellectual property lawyer, once speculated what music might play in institutional day-rooms when we became geriatric: 1970's pop, if this adaptation of Mr. Loveday's Little Outing is anything to go by.

Evelyn Waugh's Mr. Loveday's Little Outing is, in its original, a short morality tale of the dangers inherent in letting those who shouldn't stray from the strait and narrow. An interesting piece now because of the times in which it was first written, when psychiatry still practised electro-convulsive "therapy," and locked wards and the strait jacket were the norm. The remarkable "Jock" Fairbairn (brighter sire of the more famous Sir Nicholas), and Donald Woods Winnicott had barely begun practice, and Anna Freud (brighter daughter of the more famous Sigmund) had not yet begun her work with children traumatised by World War Two.

The eponymous Mister Loveday (William Ramsden) inhabits a mental institution, as such places were then called, caring for his fellow patients and assisting the doctor in charge. The arrival of Lord Moping (Hal Forbes-Adam) as a patient creates a change in Loveday's situation, as Lady Moping (Mary-Clare Dollard) is impressed by his apparent "sanity," which the other patients recognise and campaign for his release. Their "insanity" is obvious, but the ending of Loveday's "little outing," it is implied, may have resulted in far more mayhem than any of them might have been capable of.

Waugh's Roman Catholic sensibility may well have drawn him to create a tale where the innocent are culpable of having released the guilty, but he is too honest an artist not to admit the possibility of other readings. "Jock" and Donald would have had much to say of Mister Loveday, as undoubtedly would the late R. D. Laing. Although a wee thing rough round the edges on the day seen, there's some promising acting on show here, and it's to be hoped that at least some members of the cast may be seen in future Fringes, with stronger material to work with.

Times: Aug 11-25 at 13.45

Copyright Bill Dunlop August 2008

Published on EdinburghGuide.com August 2008