one4review | On 05, Aug 2023

With her laid back Texas drawl and sparkly eyeshadow, Ms Hamilton is perhaps not who you’d be expecting to march on stage playing the bagpipes, as she herself acknowledges. But she can play them, and she’s qualified to lead us through a beginners’ bagpipe lesson. They’re supposedly my national instrument, and I learned things about them. Also about what peanut butter is not suitable for.

This is a tale of maturing – not necessarily of growing up, but about that space when you’re technically an adult, but still don’t entirely know how to adult, and are figuring things out. The show uses the bagpipe lesson as a framework for her story, and the structure of the bagpipes themselves as extended metaphor and analogy for Ms Hamilton’s love life. Comedy is found in the juxtapositions and comparisons, and in the way she tells the stories.

While the show started a little creaky and rehearsed – with jokes and punchlines delivered with a slightly off intonation and prosody – Ms Hamilton seemed to relax and settle in to the performance, so the delivery lost the feel of a mid-century instruction tape and morphed into a comfortable and engaging performance of stories. Not much is asked of the audience, you just need to listen for an hour. It’s quite relaxing – without being soporific – and with enough narrative tension, comedy, and pathos in the mix to keep the whole thing moving. The ending is one of hope and optimism, leaving you feeling quite refreshed by the end.

 

Reviewed by Laura

18:50

Just the Tonic at the Caves

Unitl 27th (not 14th)