Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Mother Nature
Bhama Roget
Genre: Solo Performance, Solo Show
Venue: Greenside at George Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
This has an ambitious script which tends to meander but has a wonderful voice added to it. This seeks to address a very complex point and makes use of the musical ability of Bhama Roget who has an impressive vocal range.
Review
Mother Nature has come visiting to check upon us, explain our origins and then delight us with song; or at least use song and the narrative to give us a warning. There is an earnestness here which Seattle’s own Bhama Roget brings. There is a desire to make this a warning for all her homos and you can see that there is passion in the project.
We begin being serenaded and the production values of the click track are such that, instead of a live guitar we get a voluble track whilst Roget mimes playing guitar. It’s uncomfortable, though not quite air guitar, it does not help the message. But the voice. The voice is powerful and emotional which brings to our attention the message – but the message can, at times meander and lack focus.
We all know that the environment is a mess and anything which brings attention to it is a popular message. But it needs to be packaged in a way which brings the whole thing into our orbit. The songs, live after the opening until the end, are impressive, the pieces in between where the message could have been more powerfully packaged seemed to mix a narrative of concern for the human race with an intergalactic storyline of where things came from that would outrage the Christian Right – no bad thing.
Roget is, however, a tremendous presence and holds the stage, demanding that we pay attention, her ability to keep us focussed whilst playing and singing was very good. It allowed the full range of her vocal ability – though I am sure in such and intimate space she kept some of it back – to play out. This was performed in one of the smaller studios in the venue which kept Roget very much on top of us. There was nowhere for any of us to hide and her eye contact in particular was strong.
And then when she sang, she was wrapped up in the melodies and the words and this was where we either followed merrily along or questioned the use of how the songs were framed. By the end and the knitting together of popular songs to try and make a point the narrative was over stretched. I also was confused by the end which seemed to suggest we should burn and whatever we do, be proud and things shall come along to replace that which we lose – if I am right, that is an odd environmental theme to sing the chorus to.
Overall, this is a solo show with a tremendous costume, a tech support that seemed to depend on Roget’s nods more than a script being followed for cues, which has an important song to sing, but also a part to play in the debate. With a stricter script, perhaps there could be a more effective delivery. And that is a shame because in here there is not just a message but a really powerful presence worthy of welcoming in to be given a warning from.
