Writer: Olivia Raine Attwood
Olivia Raine Attwood’s solo show covers her life from her schooldays when she did not look like Olivia Newton John in Grease, through to setting up the marriage of the man of her dreams to someone who was one of her sworn enemies at the time. Setting up a dating agency and the agency itself is almost incidental to the series of glorious failures and minor successes that make up the majority of the show.
From her high school prom, a bathroom crisis on a bridge between New York and Brooklyn, her childhood journal with codes for who she would love or hate forever, and the three coolest kids at school who had the ability to make her life miserable even after she left, she delivers a series of confessions and anecdotes with the fast paced energy and enthusiasm that is becoming her trademark.
Throughout the hour she demonstrates that she isn’t just looking for easy punchlines. While there are a lot of very funny lines in the set, they are all there as part of bigger stories and are effective because of the way she weaves them in and makes them unique to her.
Attwood’s story telling craft is excellent as she returns to a number of seemingly throwaway lines to deliver a masterclass in callback techniques and a wonderfully well rounded conclusion to the show.
The upbeat feel to the show is infectious and it’s impossible not to find yourself rooting for her and cheering her on as she recounts the stories in vivid detail. It’s equally impossible not to both laugh with, and feel for, her as she mines her own insecurity and past misery to create moments of self-deprecation that pepper the set.
Runs until 30 August (not 18th) | Image: Contributed
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
-
9
