one4review | On 09, Aug 2025

It is almost 10 years since Ria Lina has performed at the Fringe but she has certainly been in the public eye many times with numerous TV appearances on the likes of Have I got News for You, Pointless, Mock the Week and Live at The Apollo so she has been keeping herself busy. Ria is also a mother of three, divorced, and early perimenopausal so has a busy life too.

Ms Lina has 3 degrees and obviously holds education as important. The material about keeping on top of the kids studying, her daughter wanting the be an actor, Ria offers a solution and if true, is understandably very funny, yet comparisons to the upbringing of a young Swedish Climate activist and imagined parental conversations bear fruit also.

Her living arrangements are unusual. Although she is divorced, she still shares the family home with her ex, he much older, and issues with three ‘generations’ in one house yet he makes a great housemate, she also expounds on hormones, her mental health issues and the humour comes through easily.

This is an hour that passes all too quickly. Ria, dressed as a rock-chick, has oodles of charisma and likeability. It is good to have her back at the Fringe, she’s been away far too long.

****

Reviewed by Geoff

Monkey Barrel Cab Vol 1

14.25 to 15.25

Until 24^th August (not 14^th or 21^st)