Edinburgh Fringe 2024
The Balls of Philadelphia
Danielle Solof
Genre: Comedy, Solo Show, Storytelling
Venue: Greenside at Riddle's Court
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
What if you were spiritually connected to an idiot? That central practical and philosophical question posed by solo performer Danielle Solof in thias hour exploration of coincidence and the compulsion we sometimes have to get to the real explanation of things. The hour gripped the small audience from start to finish in this bijoux performance space.
Review
In the intimate setting of a small 22-seater Greenside venue, our host, Danielle Solof, sits cross-legged on the stage, poised and relaxed, chatty with the audience, ready to take the us on a journey through a carefully crafted narrative. It happened – it’s history, bringing us eventually bang up to date. It is also personal – her story. The sound of a Tibetan bell signals the beginning and becomes a simple and effective device for marking the many coincidences that form a joining thread of the show.
Delivered in a no-nonsense, direct storytelling style, The Balls of Philadelphia is an inquiry into coincidence led by an academically minded human with a burning need for an explanation. That needs creates a quest to know.
The performance, set against this backdrop of not just personal but also philosophical exploration, is both insightful and humorous. Well-observed details bring authenticity to the story. Dark humour is interwoven throughout the episodic monologue making the exploration of the regular synchronicities and coincidences that hit her like the sudden ting of a bell both engaging and thought-provoking. She doesn’t know why the coincidences keep happening to her. We (the audience) don’t know either. Pretty soon we all want to know and the show successfully establishes a shared inquiry, all wrapped up in an entertaining show on the Fringe.
Trapped during Covid with her parents, yearning for Portugal, a place of ancestral significance, and having visited forty countries, this is the intriguing backdrop for what is a very personal diary of lovers, conundrums, pain and discovery. Food plays a role. travel plays a role. Sex plays a role. It’s an honest story, sometimes harrowing, rescued often by dark humour and payoff lines rooted in the wisdom gained from life experience.
Danielle Solof has a master’s in sociolinguistics, enabling her to deftly navigate these coincidences that appear to dog her every move, having hooked up briefly with a man she names the “idiot”, blending personal anecdotes with more philosophical inquiries along the way. She is erudite, eloquent, sharp-witted and even poetic. The story moves beyond a simple recounting of events, delving into themes of synchronicity, Carl Jung’s theories, déjà vu, and even hermetic thinking.
The performance’s strength lies in its gentle storytelling style that belies powerful themes and lines of inquiry. There is a palpable sense of movement and travel, both literal and metaphorical.. The artist’s gestures and limited stage movement hint at the potential for even greater impact if more dynamic storytelling techniques were employed. This production isn’t rooted in theatre, but it could be. The performer is at home in this small space, yet there is potential for this to play in larger venues and then there’d need to be more movement, more blocking, and more use of the stage. That’s a decision to make if this excellently written monologue garners bigger audiences, which it certainly deserves to do.
The personal anecdotes, including moments of vulnerability and constrained moments of raw honesty, are deeply perceptive, often moving. The testimony feels truthful and precise, with an underpinning academic curiosity that adds to its credibility.
The exploration of coincidences and synchronicities is particularly fascinating. References to Carl Jung, the holographic reality and parallel, alongside more “rational” explanations from neuropsychology, and all dovetail well with the very personal nature of the narrative that draws the audience into a deeply introspective space that is accessible because Solof tells a very entertaining, witty, and often dramatic personal story.
In describing her sexual encounters, and that always difficult borderland where lust and love meet and often clash, we have reflections of men, relationships, purpose, and how we connect. It’s a show full of questions and ideas, but these never overload a narrative style and story arc that keeps the audience fully engaged from start to finish. Occasionally, it becomes a bit theatrical in vocal delivery and gesture, and there is a decision to be made going forwardabout what balance is needed between this being a talk or a theatre performance. There’s an inconsistency in the stagecraft that doesn’t always serve the piece.
Ultimately, The Balls of Philadelphia is a daring work that doesn’t hold back. At one point, there is an episode about the definition of rape, and this needs a bit more sensitive consideration, especially playing to audiences from different countries and cultures.
Ultimately, this monologue is not just a performance but an invitation to reflect on the strange and beautiful coincidences of life. It challenges the audience to see beyond the materialistic point of view, to consider the deeper, often esoteric explanations for the events that shape our lives. It is daring because the performer lays herself bare. It’s a gift of openness, public vulnerability warmed by comedy, cooled by intellectual inquiry and, when all is said and done, funny, exquisitely written, and strong in the simplicity of its staging and delivery. That’s the risk she has taken with this work and it has paid off.
It is a show that might just begin the process of rewilding your brain. Are you up for that challenge?
