one4review | On 12, Aug 2013

‘There are no facts, only interpretations.’  I doubt that many people’s Friday evenings start with a quote from Frederick Nietzsche, although depending on how your night pans out it may be a handy phrase to remember and repeat to yourself the next morning.  On this Friday night the quotation was writ large across Sara Pascoe’s t-shirt and formed the basis of her show.  It went some way to explaining her unique way of viewing the world, one where she disassociates herself from reality and reminds herself time and again that she’s probably just a brain in a jar.  Albeit a brain in a jar that has given herself a hack-job of a haircut.

Through a series of anecdotes, Pascoe takes us through various events in her life – her drinking, her relationship with her parents, her relationship with her boyfriend, her irrational fears – and mixes into them a philosophical questioning of what exactly is our truth. Although she was making us laugh I couldn’t help but feel a little sad about the events that underpinned some of the material. Her birth story in particular was a little more heartbreaking than rib tickling. In addition, some of the philosophical material seemed a little disjointed, whether that was in the delivery or my interpretation of the material I can’t be sure, I just felt there were certain links that I was missing out on.

That said, Pascoe is a very likeable performer and there was a decent sized audience in on this night, so she’s obviously getting good word of mouth.  There is a lot to like about her set, she is an engaging performer and when she lands a laugh she lands it hard. Nevertheless I felt that it was very much a show of peaks and lulls.

Reviewed by Di

Assembly George Square – Assembly 3

20.00