one4review | On 07, Aug 2023

Emily Walsh delivers a delightful and compact set of stand up in a ‘haunted classroom’, while giving the air of being in an 18^th Century drawing room, complete with deep armchairs and crackling fire. Her set borrows something from monologues, a long-form essay about her personal experiences interspersed with reflections and commentary on society and its impact on her. It’s a great journey, from engaging beginning to an ending which manages to turn ambiguity into satisfying conclusion.

Technically, this is a dead dad show, but it’s also about how much she unobtrusively and non-sickeningly thinks the utter world of her husband, which is all the more lovely when you realise he’s been in the back of the room for the whole show. Ms Walsh is a great performer; doesn’t falter in her delivery, and held up well against an audience determined to avoid not just the front, but the front four rows (long room, short rows).

There’s little messing around at the start, mostly just get on with delivering a neat and entertaining story, with amusing and entertaining bits along the way. A lovely show well worth your time.

 

Reviewed by Laura

Just the Tonic at the Grassmarket Centre

18:50 (50mins)

Until 27th (not 14th)