Fuselage Dazzles at Edinburgh: A Poignant Take on the Lockerbie Bombing

In the opening of her semi-autobiographical play featuring three actors, creator and actor Annie Lareau points out that media coverage of tragic events often misses the mark. She argues that the focus is disproportionately on countries and their leaders rather than on the individuals who are directly impacted by these events.

Her play “Fuselage” illustrates why this is the case: stories that center on human emotions (which are numerous) generally only confirm the obvious — that people feel sorrow during tragic times, much like the play itself demonstrates.

Envision an installment of the TV show “Fame,” where the scriptwriters decide to tackle a serious theme. Alongside the usual narrative of drama students pursuing fame, they weave in a major terrorist act, such as the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.

This forms the premise of “Fuselage.” It’s an ordinary tale of student life — attending classes, nurturing crushes, and handling conflicts — that gets abruptly interrupted by the airplane bombing on December 21, 1988. Had Lareau been able to change her ticket, she would have been on that tragic flight with 35 of her Syracuse University classmates.

While other dramas about Lockerbie, such as Des Dillon’s “Lockerbie 103” and David Benson’s “Lockerbie: Unfinished Business,” channel their anger into exploring the causes and concealments, this play vaguely mentions “terrorists” and presents the loss of Lareau’s classmates, including her close friend Theodora Cohen, as a personal tragedy rather than a public issue. The play is strikingly apolitical.

Lareau endured a profound personal loss, and the emotional burden was undoubtedly immense, but the lack of broader context in the play, aside from a few scene-setting clips, reduces a globally impactful event to a narrow, private experience. Directed by Makaela Milburn and featuring Peter Dylan O’Connor and Brenda Joyner, the production draws the audience into a state of sympathetic mourning but ultimately changes nothing.

• At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until August 25

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