Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Katie Norris: Go West, Old Maid
Katie Norris
Genre: Comedy, Musical Stories, One Person Show, Stand-Up
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
An hour of songs, eccentric hobbies, and theatrical asides, Norris presents an hour of impressive comedy as an homage to her late father.
Review
Katie Norris is sure to be a household name. At least, that’s the distinct impression you get after leaving a showing of Go West, Old Maid. From the second she steps out looking like (in her own words) a Victorian bellboy, before launching into a sonorous account of being a godmother, you know you’re in for a treat in her second Fringe show. Filled with various songs and screwball oddities, (Norris has an impressive set of pipes), she dovetails her general experience as an “old soul,” Gen Z flatmates, and terrible ex-boyfriends into a piece that ultimately touches on grief and her relationship with her late father.
Her father, a plummy thespian of the golden age by all accounts, looms large over the set, and an obvious theatricality infuses the entire hour, from showbiz style tunes throughout to a play recital crescendo. Two lucky members of the audience join in to bring this play – her father’s attempt to get Norris a role in the arts – to life, and in doing so, bring the show to a hilarious close.
The only thing I would note is that occasionally the pacing seems disjointed – in that Go West, Old Maid is filled with so many various segues that it occasionally feels like a box of oddities (much like the contents of Norris’s suitcase) instead of a fine-tuned comedy set. Arguably, however, this is part of the show’s charm, and suits Norris’s persona to a tee – a little bit of everything, with an undercurrent of madness underneath – at least enough to scare all the men sitting in the front row.
Unapologetically eccentric, Norris clearly relishes her role as witchy savant, godmother extraordinaire, and terrifier of men. She embraces the weird and accentuates the strange, from taxidermy hobbies to picking on a particular audience member unfortunate enough to have the likeness of Anthony Hopkins in the dim Pleasance light – all in jest, though. All in all, she gives an assured performance, complete with a solid hour of comedic asides, confessionals, and impressive show tunes, guaranteed to give anyone a good laugh. We’ll have to see what she does next.
