Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Antidepressed
Ege Öztokat
Genre: Comedy, Solo Performance, Stand-Up
Venue: Greenside @ Riddles Court
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Antidepressed is a comedic piece which provides a whistle stop tour of the performer’s life from relationships to therapy, the main underlying theme being the challenges facing a woman, in particular those facing a woman living in Turkey. While the majority of the performance is spoken, there are occasional musical numbers, Öztokat arguing that she often couldn’t find the words and had gone in search of lyrics instead. The audience comfortably interacted with Öztokat, as she struck up conversations and called out a male audience member at various points.
Review
Sometimes in life the only thing someone can do is laugh. Laughing at the state of one’s life is certainly a tried and tested coping mechanism and what better way to do this than Fringe stand-up? Ege Öztokat chooses this method in her one-woman show Antidepressed, a comedic piece which provides a whistle stop tour of the performer’s life from relationships to therapy, the main underlying theme being the challenges facing a woman, in particular those facing a woman living in Turkey. Inspiring a common feeling amongst a largely female audience, she touches up the realities of everyday existence and interacts with various members. Thanks to some Turkish audience members on the night I went, Öztokat was easily able to highlight the common feeling, calling out various people to discuss the simple realities faced.
While the majority of the performance is spoken, there are occasional musical numbers, Öztokat arguing that she often couldn’t find the words and had gone in search of lyrics instead. While this sounds upon first encounter like a deeply profound statement, the irreverent lyrics quickly put pay to this. Both highly entertaining and the most memorable moments of the set, these musical numbers break up the set in an effective and engaging way. The topics of the songs vary significantly, purposefully finding new angles through which to explore everything from the potential of becoming a step-mum to taking antidepressants. As with any good comedy, it is littered with relatable content, the ideas that are most people’s everyday realities no matter where they’re from. Woven through this is, of course, those challenges faced specifically by Turkish women, feeling familiar to certain audience members and helping to raise awareness amongst others. Social politics rather than the politics of the country are touched upon regularly and the balance is struck competently. Equally, the use of storytelling, reading diary entries and singing the songs she’d written was carefully considered.
Arguably the best judge of stand-up is the audience. In this case, the audience comfortably interacted with Öztokat, as she struck up conversations and called out a male audience member at various points. The engagement with the performance was clear to see, but in some places the reactions were a little lacking. The consensus was that this is a solid piece of comedy with some compelling elements and a new perspective for Western audiences. Walking away you couldn’t help but consider the everyday ways in which the world is challenging and you can hurt yourself doing something as simple as trying to fall in love.
