Most musicals exist in their own sanitised, almost PG-kind-of world, safe for families to watch, but Midsummer is an adult, raunchy, charming break away from the norm. 

The new production to hit Cirencester's Barn Theatre is an ode to the losers, to those stuck in a rut, and it's an effective love story for two people who are lost and find miraculously each other. 

Set in Edinburgh, during Midsummer, lawyer Helena, played by Karen Long, is trapped in an unfortunate affair with a married man, and small-time crook Bob, played by Ross Carswell, is dissatisfied with his lot in life. Circumstances thrust the two together for a wild night of hijinks with hilarious results. 

Both are extremely identifiable characters, raw, edgy, messy and unfiltered which lends towards the adultness of the whole production, swearwords are aplenty, there's a sex party, drugs, crime, and a moment where Bob's penis talks to him about his choices. 

This is perhaps why, Midsummer refers to itself as a 'play with songs' rather than a musical, and indeed there are fewer songs than one might expect. Still, there's also a whimsical nature and magic to it that smashes the edgy material against the classic musical love story that somehow works.

I think this is partly because of the commitment of the actors. Small ensembles seem to be a winning formula at the Barn, and the two leads in this are backed up only by two narrators, Will Arundell and Lauren Andresen Guimaraes, with all four taking it, in turn, to play instruments as well, really selling the story's zaniness and incongruities.

This is also helped by the inventive dolls-house style staging and set employed to bring the ever-picturesque city of Edinburgh to life. Blocks with lit-up windows form the city's buildings and open up to create rooms, parts of the landscape come to life and move to imaginative effect.

The story does not completely come together as parts of it are much stronger than others, the songs, although lovely, don't fully fit in and it does, sadly, at times feel more edgy for the sake of it than necessary, but perhaps a hangover from its origins as a one-act play at the Edinburgh Fringe before it was extended.

Still, Midsummer is very clever, very funny, very entertaining and the perfect tonic to what some might expect from a musical and it's hard not to get swept up on the journey it takes you. 

It is still at The Barn in Cirencester for one more week, tickets can be found here: https://barntheatre.org.uk/midsummer.