Review – Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

I distinctly remember the day I picked up Chuck Palahniuk’s novel ‘Fight Club’ and cracked the spine. I had never in my life read, seen or experienced anything like the world within that book. Discovering it felt exciting and illicit. It felt as if I’d finally woken up from a decade of snoozing. This is exactly how I felt watching Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind; as though I was alive in a way I hadn’t been for years.

The idea of attempting 30 plays in 60 minutes seems very ambitious. In theory it sounds like a show you’d prescribe to a group of first graders on a Friday afternoon, because lord knows those little tykes can’t concentrate on anything for over a minute. I mean how can the performers possibly convey any real sentiment or coherence in a show that is essentially a cocktail of different stories?! I’ll tell you how, by touching on every single feeling and thought you’ve ever had. By illuminating these universal fears and concerns, by celebrating truth and joy, by reaching inside every audience member and withdrawing the one thing they care about most, the amazing cast of Too Much Light forces our eyes open.

Too Much Light is definitely an important piece of art, but it’s also funny, poignant and brutally honest. You feel a part of the performance, you feel like one of them. This is because they truly make you a part of it. You select from your ‘menu’ the next play you want to see and they bound to attention. There isn’t anything like Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at this year’s fringe and I implore everyone to go see it. As grand a statement as this is I completely stand by it; this show will change your world.