YOUR HARLOW has always prided itself on the support of the arts. We also support our fellow independent newspapers. Putting both things together, we have travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to work alongside The Edinburgh Reporter.

THIS IS story told by one performer of life in the heartland of America, Tama County Juvenile Home, Iowa.1956.

The story is told by John, looking back on himself as a fifteen-year-old who has found himself in a succession of institutions, homes for kids from broken homes, most of whom haven’t even broken the law.

There seems to be a lot of one person performances at the Festival this year, so there is a lot of competition to hold the audience’s attention. This one failed to do so.

We ever felt that Max Campbell carved out the other characters. There were times that they all rolled into one and you never felt we got into the body of the persons described.

The title? Shimmer starts as a barely there secret language, perceived like radio static, to get around the strict no talking rules at dinner. It will evolve to be a mystic home-grown philosophy where in moments of revelation things just feel subconsciously right.

Even though this was a compact arena, you at times had trouble hearing what he was saying. Clearly a gifted actor, he may need to just go back and have a look at a few elements of the performance.