Brighton Fringe 2015
Low Down
Jane Postlethwaite (Latest Award Nominee for Best Female Performer 2014 and Funny Women semi-finalist 2014) takes you on a journey to remember with her debut Fringe comedy show. Come meet the variety of characters who live, work or have association with the North.
Review
Anyone who has seen Jane Postlethwaite in the many plays she has been in, knows what a superb actress she is, but Made in Cumbria will convince you that the woman is also a superb writer. She has created a fast moving comedic pastiche of colorful characters such as Karroll Kavannagh – Survival expert who tells a shocked audience member, “What I want to say is try not to fall in love with me.”
The show opens with a radio presenter, (which played between the other characters) Janice Sparks with her Radio Cumbria show, "Sparks It Up”, which is the vehicle for introducing each of the five characters and gives Postlethwaite time to transform herself into her quirky, and off-the-wall people. She becomes the depressed and very sad Joy Hope -Children’s Author & illustrator in residence who confesses that she was an only child and her favorite hobby was blackmail. Then Postlethwaite is transformed into Stella Nova – Astronaut who is being interviewed by the press and asked questions like,”How does it feel to be Northern and go into space?” Janice Sparks does another interlude and we are faced with Kirsty Bird – Head Falconer who describes her falconry display as kind of like a mixture of depressed and evil. The show finishes with Bri Frommage – Founder of Yoga-Fu UK who encourages her audience to breath out the bull shit.
Throughout her monologues, Postlethwaite involves her audience, asks them questions that brings them into the performance. The sketches are very funny, and are clichéd exaggerations of the characters the actress is representing, but each one is fascinating and compelling because of Postlethwaite’s skill as an actress. In less capable hands, the show would not have held together but Postlethwaite is an expert at keeping the pace moving, the jokes coming and the laughter at its peak. The audience was utterly delighted with the performance and disappointed when the hour ended. Made in Cumbria was a wonderfully entertaining experience and one must compliment Postlethwaite not just on her performance which was impeccable, but on her writing skills. Every word led to the next, and created exactly the picture the author had in her mind when she wove these five ridiculous parodies together to make a solid show.
