Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Fleabag’, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 17th January 2015, and then tours nationwide.
There is a stool centre stage; the sort of stool Dave Allen might have sat upon. A door bursts open and a flustered, breathless young woman arrives for a job interview which goes calamitously wrong…just like the rest of her life. If only sex wouldn’t keep getting in the way….
This one-hour, one-woman monologue rocked Edinburgh. It won a Fringe First award in 2013 and was nominated for an Olivier Award last year. And now ‘Fleabag’ has been let loose again on a national tour for which the writer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, has been replaced on stage by an actor Maddie Rice (pictured); who is absolutely brilliant.
In a vehicle that is a cross between stand up comedy and a raunchy Morning Story, she presents a painfully hilarious portrait of a 26-year-old sex-mad Yuppie who measures the depth of her life by the length of her partners’ penis. Several partners.
She’s cute, cookie and completely chaotic; attractive to know – but you wouldn’t want her anywhere near you as a friend.
Dressed down in a russet top and black slacks, Maddie plays the self obsessed unnamed anti-heroine with so much pace, energy and enthusiasm you almost forget to breath. Imagine Josie Lawrence and Miranda Hart rolled into one and armed with a kalashnikov.
She populates the imagination with a range of beautifully observed characters from her equally hopeless sister to her late business partner Boo, with whom she once ran the now failing Guinea Pig themed café. The guinea pig in question, by the way, was called Hilary. I say ‘was’ because her death scene drew huge audible gasps from the audience.
But the menace in the show is the men. She’s a failed feminist who can’t help weighing up the sexual potential of any man she passes by. The ‘encounters’ are frank, honest, detailed and ultimately pitiful. You can’t help but laugh because it’s all so hilariously well written and immaculately acted. Miss Waller-Bridge is merciless with her pen and Miss Rice can act with her lips alone.
It is indeed a remarkable piece of writing, and a very impressive performance, which come together beautifully to lay bare the sadness – the uncaring usury – of the shady YouPorn section of our society.
The whole show is a “sexually inappropriate” confessional from start to finish. You might want to take your rosary.
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