Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Low Down
Bitty-Bat! is a hilarious, strange half-hour that you are unlikely to see anywhere else. Emily Jeffers’s creature, part bat/maybe vampire, is a delight to watch and anything but predictable. An imaginative, weird, incredible piece of solo theatre.
Review
Meet Bitty-Bat. Bitty-Bat is a strange creature, the last of her kind, standing five foot ten, twelve feet if she has her long arms up. With Attenborough-esque narration, we see Bitty in her cave, watch her escape a predator, observe her attempts to find a mate, and see her generally cope with being the only weird little vampire bat thing left. Of course, this is a far too simplistic way to describe this show, but it wouldn’t be right to start with the massive headache I still have from laughing so hard.
To the untrained eye, one might look at Emily Jeffers’s Nosferatu-like character and think, “I could do that”. No, you can’t. You’d last one minute with those comically long bat-arms and put a hole through a window. Jeffers’s mastery of the character seems effortless, but the amount of skill it takes to use those arms, manage in the flowing cape costume, and control facial expressions down to the tiniest detail is something once reserved only for cartoon characters. Flying across the stage in an incredibly effective study of bat movement, she is in complete control. Her confidence is obvious, particularly in moments where she seamlessly involves the unsuspecting public, guiding them into her world, whatever it takes. It’s hard to tell what is scripted and what is natural improvisation. Communicating almost entirely through a series of ‘meeps’, Bitty takes us so far into her weird world, that once it is over, and Emily comes out as herself, it feels as if some kind of spell has broken. The pure physicality in body and face is so completely convincing, I kind of half believe Bitty is actually still backstage, and Emily is just some kind of front to keep Animal Protection off their scent.
Also incredible is Jeffers’s ability to coax an audience that is clearly a bit nervous about what’s going on. Her reactions to their reactions, whether it’s an expression or a sound, gradually break the ice and make you want to take one of those weird little bat hands into her newly-swept cave. The show has proven itself to be liquid, that is- filling whatever container it is in to become whatever it needs to be. With a completely different type of audience (bigger, more vocal, more game), the show adjusts to fill the time accordingly. Some gags are lengthened, some shortened, always in order to accommodate what the audience is feeding back to Jeffers. Her ability to ‘yes and’ herself and the audience is mesmerizing, and I found myself crying laughing in several areas.
I’m sure Bitty-Bat! might not seem for everyone on at first glance, but I truly believe if you go into it with an open heart, you will have a wonderful time. Activate your inner child, find that bit of yourself that once played pretend and made weird noises and pulled weird faces, and you won’t be able to resist. To put it into words I think Bitty would appreciate: ‘meep, meep meep, meep meep.’ Five meeps for Bitty, my top show of the 2024 Fringe.
Bitty-Bat! is at Paradise in the Vault at 14:00 through 25 August.
