home
|
about
|
news
|
contents
|
gossip
|
photographs
|
venues
|
brighton
|
dublin
|
edinburgh
|
film
|
features
|
interviews
|
awards
|
fashion
|
recipes
|
no more drinks
|
newsletter
|
links
|
contact
Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Kitty Flanagan in Thick
Verdict: Sharp observational humour
Edinburgh - Assembly Rooms - August 03
Kitty Flanagan's tales of the world's secret corners have unexpected and delightfully wicked conclusions. From satisfying cruelty towards camera-stealing street-children in Bolivia ('Number one world shithole'), to shaming ruses for depriving mothers with small children of their parking spaces, her stories leach acid in a wholly satisfying way.
Kitty Flanagan strides on stage, establishing an immediately powerful presence. There's a magnificent storm of red curled hair severely tied back from her strikingly beautiful face.
No red lipstick - rude advice from a housemate which she quickly explains. She's from Australia, now London based, and tells about the unusual life in her shared house. It's a place of notes and quirky style tips - unsurprisingly she leaves often to travel the world.
And the UK. Newcastle too. It's a city crammed with bridges and single teen mothers in Kitty Flanagan's robust and acute travel notes. Her account of dining alone on Tyneside brims with realism and solitude - it's like walking into Edward Hopper's Night Hawks.
Belfast celebrates the Titanic, she finds, and the Scots have rejected fashion. 'The Welsh are just people who can't spell. In Australia we call those people dyslexic'. The Irish also get the Flanagan treatment. Sensing the geographical drift, the only two Americans in the audience walk out - which some might see as a stand-up's ultimate accolade.
But Kitty Flanagan's light on Americans: apart from some gentle close-mouth-when-thinking advice, she advocates kindness. And she's on to salsa for women in their thirties, golf, mums who talk baby language, childbirth, the blinding of misbehaving children, deaf people and their alarm clocks - and much more.
It's a strong set - the power of her observation is underscored by an occasional and surprising gentleness. It's enlivened by Kitty Flanagan's sharp eye for quirk, odd detail, and excellently horrid endings.
END
John Park
reviewed Sunday 10 August 03 / Edinburgh / The Assembly Rooms
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
