Kursk @ the Edinburgh Fringe

Something meaningful packed into a small space. That's how Ian Ashpitel's Donnie Black describes a a haiku poem in Sound&Fury's piece of (almost literally) immersive theatre produced with the Young Vic. It works as a description of the British submarine which Kursk is set...except that the playing space – designed to be the inside of a Trafalgar class submarine – actually sprawls rather more than an actual submarine.

That submarine isn't the Kursk, crucially. It's British, the British submarine that was tracking the Russian nuclear submarine that suffered an explosion resulting in the loss of all hands. What with everything being so covert (a hangover from the Cold War, and a dramatic theme for the plot), the British must keep quiet and can't send a distress signal.

It's a misleading title, because although this is ostensibly about the Kursk, all the action happens on the Trafalgar submarine. The Russians are viewed – well, heard – from afar through the sonar, their story reported rather than shown. Instead, the focus of the pathos is on one of the British crew, and the Russian tragedy is forgotten. It's a criticism that's been levelled at Kursk before, but there's a definite lack of actual Kursk. Even the list of the dead read out in tribute at the end is drowned out by the helicopter that arrives to take said British crewman home.

Homing in on the British crew gives a chance to show the British Navy at its blokish, Boy Scout best. To an extent, the beginnings of the mission feel like one big adventure, with shared sleeping areas and arguments over mix tapes. Oh, and they have hot chocolate and biscuits at bed-time. They may as well be on Scout camp. Of course, the sub is devoid of women, except for the messages sent to the boys every four weeks, so it's a very male environment. But some people like that; it's not a problem for some people, including the boys onstage here who clearly revel in the testosterone like many real sailors. I mean it in a good way when I say that this setting reminded me why I dropped my application to join the Navy.

Sound&Fury create a convincing submarine but the story feels misplaced, focusing as it does on the lesser tragedy (in terms of scale, though not poignancy) and not the one that inspired it. More meaning could be packed into this particular small space.