one4review | On 06, Aug 2023

At once utterly unhinged and hyper-lucid, this show will have you either wondering what on earth you’ve got yourself into or cackling in the aisles. If the show isn’t for you, that’s probably fair enough, but it won’t be for a lack of quality in the show itself.

A rare show to have been given an appropriate timeslot, where folks aren’t so far gone as to be problematically heckle-y but are loose enough to go with it, Ms Cockayne almost literally appears on stage and delivers a new-age-inspired ode to the jammy dodger involving some flouncy fabric and contemporary dance. If this isn’t your thing, leave now, because Ms Cockayne leans in and commits to the bit, for the whole show. It’s not all about biscuits (there are also expressive wigs and mugs and a great joke involving an apple) but it retains the same ethereal surrealist vibe throughout.

Occupying a space in the same county as clowning, and perhaps the house next door to performance art, Ms Cockayne’s performance never wavers, not even when she’s giving little explainers to make things make a wee bit more sense (my stuff’s under this seat!). Utterly committed, she does an excellent job of projecting a sense of both antipathy towards whether we laugh or nor, and a complete lack of fourth wall: ‘of course I am this person, this is not pretend! Why would the real world have a fourth wall?’ And indeed it doesn’t, such is the copious use made of the audience (with consent!)

This show is an excellently performed hour from a comedian having a great time beguiling and bemusing audiences, who, to be fair, seemed to be enjoying it too.

Reveiwed by Laura

Underbelly George Square

22:20 (1hr)

Until 28th (not 14th)