one4review | On 19, Aug 2019

On stage, Georgie Morrell is both the epitome and caricature of an entitled, middle-class millennial, with the added fury at the state of the world that media tropes often miss, and a self-awareness that neutralises any pretension or delusion of grandeur. She brushes with the line of morally suspect (like criticising fashion choices in the women’s bathrooms, where anyone – even the target – might hear) and is often quite outrageous, but it’s all, quite unselfconsciously, in service to keeping attention on Ms Morrell. This blend of attention seeking and ironic self-deprecation is both engrossing, strangely compelling and quite relaxing – there’s no way Geogie’s going to give the limelight up to someone else, so even the front row doesn’t need to worry.

The hook of the show – that Ms Morrell has only one working eye – receives minimal attention, though there are enough details dropped throughout the show that the point is clear. This hook isn’t the point of the show: that’s more about the fact that a disability doesn’t turn a person into a superhuman or an inspiration, those one-dimensional tropes disability is expected to conform to. Ms Morrell utterly rejects and subverts those expectations by being a whole lot extra and only referring to her eye when it’s relevant (for example, it’s not relevant when she’s vomited on a dog. But that is hilarious.) or will get her a laugh (‘out of the corner of my one eye…’).

The show’s perhaps a little disjointed, and a performer without Ms Morrell’s attitude and sass would not have been able to deliver it with such conviction or success. This is not a laugh a minute show, but it’s highly entertaining and well worth seeing.

Reveiwed by Laura

Gilded Balloon Teviot
14:00 (until 26th)