A superb exploration of gender and identity by the most loveable double act in town.
Aw, how Shelf have grown. Not physically – they still look like they get ID’d regularly, as is significant to the narrative – but as performers. Assured, charming, charismatic, they handle this large and occasionally boisterous festival crowd with ease.
Shelf are Rachel and Ruby, two queer women and lifelong best friends. One confident in their identity from an early age (“fuckboy”), the other taking a while to figure it out, both extremely open about the pitfalls and pratfalls of gradually understanding who one is and what one wants.
As a double act, they’re perfect: one garrulous, open, and bursting with energy, the other deadpan, more reserved, and often equipped with the most killer of punchlines.
As the show unfolds, expectations – of their friendship, of their inner character, and of their own contrasting journeys towards self-knowledge – are constantly upturned, toyed with, or doubled down on. The confidence and the essential truth contained herein heightens this material towards the universal and profound.
This is also, at its heart, an optimistic show. Shelf make most of their money these days from kids shows, much to their initial chagrin, thinking they were an alternative and political act actually. This they indeed are, but they are also extremely silly people. And today’s nine year olds are reassuringly unbothered by fripperies like gender and sexual identity, provided the puns are obvious and the comedians kiss each other to order.
And this, in itself, like kissing in the street, is a form of activism anyway. After all, the press and political establishment are becoming ever more hysterical about queer people being allowed anywhere near children in case gayness turns out to be contagious. Shelf, with their show for kids (2pm) then show about performing to kids (7:30, same venue, drunker crowd), are worth their weight in gold.
There are also songs. Only one of them sings, but there are songs. Especially inspired is a beautiful ditty about how social media algorithms think they know us better than we know ourselves – and the consequences of that if you don’t present the way capitalism expects. Without giving too much away, Instagram definitely thinks one of the pair is an affluent gay man in his forties. As with a lot of Shelf’s brilliant, well-honed material, the punchline is even cleverer than expected.
Friendship, family, love, celebration of how far we’ve come and hope for a better world: this show has it all, and Brighton is absolutely the best place to experience it.
There is still further to go. From what Rachel and Ruby are saying, the audiences of, say, Guildford are not quite as understanding of difference. But as The Simpsons once put it, the children are our future, and hopefully there’s a nine-year-old from Surrey who will be ready for Shelf and all they gleefully represent in ten year’s time.
Reviewed on the 19th May
