Writer: Frances Mercanti-Anthony
When a show opens with a wonderful sing along song about how we’re all going to die one day, you know that the writer and performer is unlikely to take a too serious view of life, and the rest of Frances Floats confirms this, with an uplifting message about being yourself, living according to your own standards and beliefs, and recognising the very small part that any of us play in the grand scheme of things.
The show is autobiographical as writer and performer Frances Mercanti-Anthony takes the audience through her life from being raised in New Jersey, through being an actor in New York during 9/11 and onto her present day life as a mother of two in Maine, returning to the stage after an eight-year absence.
Running through it all are the themes of weight, body image and fruitless attempts to fit into groups where you don’t fit the stereotype they’re taught to look for. There is a self-deprecating strand to the show, shown in observations such as people saying that her weight issues mean that working in a donut shop is equivalent to asking a dog to watch your sandwiches, and Mercanti-Anthony’s positive, balanced outlook means that there is never any danger of this becoming a heavy-handed misery fest.
Instead, it is a charming reflective celebration of accepting the person she is and finding a happiness and contentment that seemed out of reach in her early years. The water imagery in the title is cleverly used to provide the contrast between what is real and what is artificial, and places the storyline into a wider context with a message that resonates and makes this more than just someone talking about themselves.
Runs until 24 August 2025
