Soho Theatre, London – until 19th May 2018 then on tour
Reviewed by Lisa Harlow
4****
I was a quarter way through this story-telling show, by the time I realised it had got me by the balls.
The slightly awkward interactive introduction with the audience, belied nothing that was yet to come. Even the first quarter, as she started to weave her story tapestry, did either. It began to merely pin the borders in your mind ready for entwining tales on the theme of the Chinese proverb her dad built his lifetime philosophy upon:
”Good luck, bad luck, how can you ever know?’ And, anyhow, there’s always tomorrow.
Initially, I felt the links between stories, either fast-forwarding or back-pedalling, were rather incoherent and scrambled, but by the end I realised I had been presented with a glorious, poignant, tragic tapestry in which all of the stories had been knitted together. I also realised that she had proven the proverb to be true: calamitous events could be viewed as miraculous, times of fortune, now disturbing. Aren’t they ultimately repeating stories, spiralling onwards and inwards, “helping us all to navigate life?” as Sarah mused.
It’s easy to see how this Australian comic has hosted sell out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and has just been awarded Writer’s Guild Award 2018 for Best Radio Comedy. The humour hand holds the stories throughout the show, with particular highlights including reflections on what Grease the movie is truly about and teaching children to appreciate classic albums of our time.
But it truly is the gift of her storytelling and beautiful interlacing of threads of her own, family and friends’ lives that leaves you with tingles down your spine.