After watching Peregrinations, Dutch Kills Theatre’s other show, Double Take, unfortunately did not meet expectations. As a silent mime show, the movements should be incredibly precise whilst also conveying emotion and creating characters. Instead, it often felt like the actors focused so much on technique (which was still sloppy at times) that the characters felt superficial. They eased more into it towards the end of the show, and we got moments of clowning and some very funny bits, but most of the time both movements and transitions were not refined enough.
The concept is nice: eight little stories told entirely through mime. Some of them were definitely more interesting than others, The Whole Shebang in particular gave included some interesting images and hand puppetry. But many felt unoriginal and more like a Drama school exercise than a professional show. The fact that a scene from Our Corporate Promise was basically the same as the video game scene in Peregrinations did not help with this. Additionally, Double Take felt like it had three endings. Revisions need to be made when it comes to pacing, the order of the pieces, and transitions between them.
People who have learned Mime or make similar theatre themselves will likely be unimpressed. That being said, the Fringe is a place for audiences to discover new theatre styles that they might not come in contact with otherwise. As the stories are quite basic, they are also very easy to understand and might be a good introduction to Mime and hopefully the show will get new audience members interested in the artform regardless.
Double Take runs until the 30th of August at Underbelly Bristo Square with tickets available at https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/double-take (run now completed)
Reviewer: Christina Schmidt
Reviewed: 29th August 2026
North West End UK/Theatre Muse UK rating: 3 stars
