Edinburgh Fringe 2018
(Sorry)
Kings head
Genre: Contemporary, Drama, LGBTQ, New Writing, One Person Show, Solo Show, Theatre
Venue: Assembly box
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
What does it mean to be a millennial? One stands before you, trying to process her three most pressing concerns: job exploitation, crumbling friendship and the imminent apocalypse. She has an overwhelming need to share.. and to say sorry. Written by Susie Sillett, directed by Jennifer Davis and performed by Louise Beresford
Review
This piece was very well written. The text was clever, witty and fresh with a socially-conscious backbone. References from fairy tales merged with millennial frustration and social commentary. Susie Sillett is obviously a mind reader as she pulled worries straight from my brain and put them onstage; climate change, animals chocking on plastic, the death of a loved one, recycling, job security, all featured in this one woman power house of a solo show.
Louise Beresford was fantastic. She drew us in from the very start as she stood awkwardly, clutching a can of chickpeas and telling us not to look at her. Her performance was powerful and nuanced, both funny and compelling. She carried the weight of being a millennial and showed the audience the complexity of a generation often called snowflakes. She explained with kindness and obvious distress the difficulties of living in an age of waste, poverty and war whilst being told to carry on being a good capitalist. She moved me to tears with her beautiful portrayal of a young woman struggling in the world that thinks she has it easy.
Jennifer Davis’ direction is clever and compelling. The Actor often looked audience members right in the eyes, this is not a show to be a passive spectator; you are complicit, part of the problem. The middle section was a dinner played out with the front row in the place of her dining partner. For such a small theatre, this piece was confident in its use of space.
This show had very few props or set but what they did have was completely correct for the world they had created. The staging, confined to the inside of the paper circle and a single white chair was stark but defined the space and created an interesting micro climate for performance. This is a show that took the limitations of Edinburgh fringe and turned them into a positive. This piece needed nothing else and it wasn’t done using expensive items, just a clever & creative eye. The lighting design was effective and clean; helping us with the changes in place that the script demanded.
This three act piece has a great narrative arc and the way the text slowly raises the performers anger and frustration until she is screaming at us was expertly done. The anger felt real and the journey to it was perfect. This show doesn’t give you any answers but it does neatly lay the blame back onto generations who have created a completely unsustainable world and moans at young people who struggle with this. Solo shows have been around for a long time but this is a great example of the genre. It is a fully rounded piece of work and shows off Susie Sillett’s passionate and truthful writing and Louise Beresford’s strong acting.
I was very moved by this piece, in fact, I cried for the last twenty minutes which left me a dry snotty husk of a reviewer by the end. After the show Louise Beresford was waiting outside to give us badges. This all-female creative team has done an outstanding job and the rest of audience laughed and cried alongside myself.
This is a pertinent example of a show at the fringe, expertly put together and polished. Nothing was out of place both in terms of set and performance. This company used the performance space (two containers smushed together) and made their work fit there. It was a deeply moving piece and if you are a crier like me, take lots of tissues and a friend to hug after. This is a Must See Show and I hope it sells out for the rest of this run as it defiantly deserves to.
