Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Outpatient
Crowded Room in association with Reading Rep Theatre
Genre: Comedy, Dramedy, Theatre, True-life
Venue: Summerhall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A relatable exploration of mortality and finding the humour within the darkest hours of life through karaoke, running and love.
Review
Have you thought about your death recently? I hadn’t, but I did by the end of the show. I went in without knowing much. All I knew was that Summerhall is a venue that always produces high quality fringe shows with emotional depth and that a long queue for a 10:30am show is a good sign. What I discovered was something of astute comedy.
Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t a light show about briefly visiting a hospital like the title suggests. This is a show about Olive; an entertainment journalist, being diagnosed with a life threatening disease. She says she’s “always been kinda convinced that it wouldn’t happen to me- like I know it will to you but, we’ll see about me.” She’s already in-amidst researching mortality for a new journalistic piece. She jokes that perhaps her early death may be good for her career. Think Bridget Jones, but she actually has most of herself together and it’s being ripped from right under her feet.
She interviews those in their last phase of terminal illness in hospitals, to the support of her mother moans “oh for God’s sake,” when Olive tells her the ‘dying people’ don’t want speak to her. There is a nice screen projection, accompanied with narration of information; anytime Olive is researching death.
There is nothing on stage except a neat little portable running machine and a yoga ball. Yet what we were treated to were strong visuals, painted descriptively by the lighting, writing and acting. A one woman show is by no means an easy beast to take on and it takes a very talented actor to keep the audience engaged and stay grounded in the truth of the story.
Madeley is an example of a seamless actor who is loyal to the narrative over the desire for laughs- which isn’t easily done, especially when you’re performing your own comedic work. Nevertheless Madeley who attained a stream of laughter from the audience, kept her cool. She didn’t let it elevate or hinder her. She stayed sincere.
There is wonderful pre-recorded narration of a multitude of characters which Olive interacts with, including her parents, Doctors, fiancé Tess, Evelyn and Iona, who is the embodiment of that ‘friend’ who’s not really your ‘friend’ who thrives off pitying you and making you feel like a charity case. Madeley performs alongside the narration with such flow- you’d think she was having an in person conversation with them. ‘Fleabag’ and ‘Motherland’ are two BBC shows with the same tonality as ‘Outpatient’. There is the same infuriating characters and our protagonist is looking to us to sympathise with her annoying interactions with a genuine stream of consciousness. Madeley makes great eye contact with the audience confiding in them all. Even when in the middle of conversations with her absentminded Dad, we get an eye roll.
Towards the end Madeley is conscious about leading us down a predictable path, even if that be the truth of the story. She swerves us off track multiple turns with the punchline of the joke being unpredictably on the same original track. She is constantly playing with you and derailing your instincts. This is highbrow writing and a masterclass in comedic writing.
She was intermittently on the running machine, her pace gorgeously syncing with the changing tones of the play. At the end of the show there is a 360 completion. The speed she runs on the running machine is synced up to the very first scene. She vividly paints the image of the last scene she is on stage, with such precision. She exits and we are left alone to look yet again at a projection on the wall. This time showing real photographs of Madeley with her family and from her time in the hospital. Joining up the dots there were sniffles heard throughout the auditorium.
Although being set up to be a show about dying, it was ironically more of a show about living. It’s a humorous and relatable exploration of death and the experience of still ‘living’ even though you’ve not got long left. There is a realisation that love is the only way to go through an experience like this. The iconic Beatles tune is played and you realise Lennon is right, ‘all you need is love.’
