David Terry as Edmond Burke in David Mamet’s classic drama Edmond is a young man- in his thirties, in crisis. He has a very comfortable, middle class lifestyle with a fine home, and a devoted wife, but like so many he feels the dull ache of emptiness inside him. He feels a desperate need to address this emptiness, and decides to leave his wife, and his life of excessive routine and responsibility, and goes exploring the seedy side of New York city life.

It’s a damaging walk on the wild side from which he never recovers. The most appropriate way to describe his new life is punishing. Edmund finds that, as tough as he thinks he is, he doesn’t know how to tackle the sordid world he enters, and every deal that he tries to cut goes against him.

What’s worse is, Edmond’s emotional baggage, his misogynistic and racist tendencies, are thrown in his face. When Edmund ends up in jail he shares a jail cell with a well built Afro-American inmate, the cellmate lets him know whose boss straight away.

Craig Ilott’s production of Edmond for Albedo Theatre and Belvoir’s B Sharp was strong. All the main parts of the production were strong. Ilott’s dramaturgical work was good. Performances were strong, my pick- David Terry as Edmond, and three cast members who played multiple roles, Wayne McDaniel, Rebecca Rocheford Davies, and David Webb. Nicholas Dare’s set was sophisticated and compact. Basil Hogios’s soundtrack and Martin Kinnane’s lighting design were appropriately disturbing.