Edinburgh Fringe 2023
The Life Sporadic of Jess Wildgoose
Voloz Collective
Genre: Comedy, Physical Theatre
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Martin Scorsese meets Wes Anderson meets Pixar in this nail-biting comic thriller. Jess Wildgoose fights to make her name on Wall Street, but her dreams seem unreachable in this dizzying world of ambition, illusion, and high-risk equity trading – until an Earth-shattering discovery threatens to turn her world upside down. With virtuosic physicality, and live music, this genre-defying cinematic adventure unnerves and astounds.
Review
Jess Wildgoose doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of her dad, but has ambitions to learn about the financial sector of stocks and shares. She is from a good family and although they care a lot about each other – much about their mutual feelings are left unsaid. Onstage are four performers who are energetic and work together smoothly making images with their bodies. They also play several different characters by adding a hat here or a jacket there.
Live music played on stage by one musician varies from loud to frenetic to different styles and is appropriate to the scene or moment of storytelling. What is fascinating is how the musician joins in as a character sometimes while he sits at the keyboard. This is one of the highlights of the show because it involves an additional person who can also contribute humour in his witty moments onstage as well as play all the music and sound effects. This adds more to the relationship between performers and audience.
All four performers narrate directly to the audience and form the buildings and other landscape such as doors with their bodies. A fun motif is when they are all on a subway and the train sways side to side, the group do this very well. The spoken dialogue between Jess and her father and later Jess and other characters she meets is quick and hard hitting, without too much exploration. It’s the right amount of conversation to help move the story on effectively. Snippets of conversations include topics such as stocks and bonds.
Jess lands a new job on Wall Street which offers an amusing sequence of ordering coffee with all the possible combinations for size, content and toppings available today, and this has to be remembered by Jess who works hard to be accepted.
The briefcases held during city scenes are multi purpose and become other things as the group place them in different locations and move around with them. The ensemble handle the short snappy dialogue and quick transition to characters well. There is a longer scene with the briefcases and flashing lights moving them from person to person that can benefit from streamlining.
Funny scenes with parents not quite used to computers with predictable conversation are relatable and well received at the performance I attended. One or two comments in other scenes show that the setting is not the present but several years ago, which is interesting.
The office culture is always a fascinating topic for devised pieces and there is the usual hierarchy, elevators and competition. The ensemble incorporate mime well when making bids and incorporate abstract physical gestures effectively. This ensemble of performers is sincere and the piece is fresh, they really want to share their story. It will benefit from more development especially in the second half. This show is energetic, entertaining, humourous and well received.
