Adam - Edinburgh Festival Guide

Written and directed by noted New York theatre director and playwright Mayer, the EIFF Closing Night film puts a thought provoking new spin on the conventional romcom set-up. Outgoing, attractive writer Beth (Byrne) is very keen to know her new neighbours -- particularly handsome Adam (Dancy). But as she attempts to forge a connection, Adam's behaviour begins to puzzle her -- why doesn't he respond to hints or signals, the crucial currency of flirtation? Mayer's delicate script allows the fact of Adam's Asperger's Syndrome to evolve not as a tragic blight on the developing romance, but as a challenge to all Beth's assumptions about what it means to be normal, and what language and gesture can indicate to different individuals. (Adam reads everything literally, as Beth realises when she tries to explain that her ex-lover 'was seeing other women while we were together...'). Tender but never sentimental,