one4review | On 13, Aug 2019

Stories about people going through difficult and awful things shouldn’t result in an entertaining, informative and above all, uplifting show, but Richard Fry pulls that feat off with aplomb.

This isn’t stand up in the laugh-after-every-few-sentences style. This is storytelling; humour is found in the darkness (because otherwise how would you keep going?), and it very much acknowledges – and provokes – a multitude of emotions as well as amusement. There’s a little bit of the lecture about it, peppered as it is with stories about Van Gogh and his paintings. If I’d had a lecturer like Mr Fry, I’d have been a sight more interested in art history. His presentation and interpretation, interwoven with episodes from his own life and experience of mental ill-health, is absolutely captivating.

Mr Fry knows how to 1. tell a story; 2. structure a show; and 3. use his individual anecdotes to support the show as a coherent whole. His political points are cogent and well-reasoned, and his discussion of the effect of patriarchy on men contains no mention of or comparison with women – and is all the more compelling for that.

An honest, uplifting show which will leave you feeling positive about the world.

Reviewed by Laura

Gilded Balloon Teviot
18:30 (until 26th)