Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Pleasance Courtyard (Below), Venue 300 – until 27 August 2022
5*****
As you enter the venue, Charlie Russell stands happily at the door, introducing herself and making us, the audience, feel very welcome. A founding member of Mischief, you enter expecting the comedy the group are famous for. But this is different.
After being told as a child she couldn’t please everyone, this is her attempt to do just that. To prove we have been pleased we are issued with stickers and we must put them on when we are happy.
And so it begins, asking various members of the audience what will please them and then proceeding to make them happy. A particular hi-light for me was her “impression” of Ronan Keating.
But then the attempts to please take a dark turn and suddenly, on stage, the bright and happy woman is now a sad, frightened girl. Because its not that she wants to please everyone, she wanted to please someone. She wants to be liked and importantly she wants, needs, to like herself. At the end of the show, I just wanted to scoop her up in a massive hug and tell her everything will be okay and she is enough. But this is something she needs to discover for herself. I just hope, more than anything this show helps her to realise that.