 Failsafe clocks in at ninety minutes and longer runtime by Edinburgh Fringe standards but it's time richly rewarded by a compelling, darkly comic exploration of death, desire, and co-dependency. We meet Ivy (Grayce Toon), resolute in her belief that suicide is the answer, but determined not to die alone. And then there’s Jones (Johncarlo Zani), who is seemingly at peace with the idea of death but just not before he loses his virginity.
We join them on their fourth failed attempt to end their lives, and like the others, it’s an absurd, grimly funny disaster. Poison, drowning, hanging, trains, guns yet nothing sticks. They are stuck in a purgatorial loop that gives the audience time to peel back the layers of their bond. That extended runtime becomes essential. It allows the relationship between Ivy and Jones to breathe and decay, twist and unravel in ways that feel earned. Ivy introduces Jones as a bit of an incel, a loser, someone who’s never had sex until her. As part of their pact, they agree to sleep together before they die and now they have to keep repeating that. It’s a transactional intimacy, born not of romance but ritual. Yet it reveals more than either of them probably expected. Jones may come off as a grubby oddball, but there's something sincere about him. He's trying even if what he's trying to do is help them both die. Ivy, on the other hand, is an enigmatic force of contradictions. She’s driven, independent, clear-eyed in her mission but deeply tethered to Jones in ways that suggest a profound fragility. She loathes him in one breath and leans on him in the next. Their connection is the very thing that keeps her alive, even as she tries to orchestrate their deaths. The performances are impressively grounded, with both actors fully inhabiting their roles in a way that makes Ivy and Jones feel instantly real. There’s a quiet, physical detail to how they move — slightly hunched, restless, worn down — that adds to the sense these characters have been living with this pact for a long time. The grubbiness of their appearances and clothes, their body language, and even the way they occupy the space all feed into the atmosphere of something frayed and lived-in. The play handles this co-dependency with real nuance. Their suicide pact becomes a strange kind of intimacy and one where two people come to know each other’s wants, wounds, and fears more intimately than many lovers ever do. In the twisted logic of their arrangement, suicide becomes not just an escape but a shared goal, a dark glue that bonds them. And yet, it also keeps them from letting go — not just of life, but of each other. It’s ironic and tragic: the very closeness that fuels their connection also traps them in a destructive cycle they can’t escape. As the play progresses, Ivy begins to fracture. Her steely composure crumbles under the weight of loathing, anger, and long-buried grief. She surrounds herself with no one but Jones, dismisses her father, and barely engages with friends, save for the voicemails that go unanswered and act as quiet reminders that someone, somewhere, still cares. Ivy’s story is shaped by inherited trauma: her mother’s suicide only days after Ivy was born haunts the narrative, an unspoken legacy passed down like a curse potentially. And then comes the ending with a final act so intense and chaotic it wouldn’t feel out of place in a Coen Brothers film. It’s violent. It’s messy. It’s brilliant. The humour becomes darker, the emotional stakes impossibly high, and the characters spiral into something that feels both inevitable and heartbreaking. You’re not just watching two people trying to die but the tragedy of what happens when two damaged souls orbit each other too long. Failsafe is bold, brutal, and bursting with uncomfortable truths. It’s a play about death but it’s about how desperately we cling to one another, even when we claim we want to let go. Lee Hutchison 5/5 Failsafe Venue: Meeting Room at Dovecot Studios Dates: August 4th to 24th (excluding 11th and 18th) Time: 1400 Tickets: www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/failsafe |
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