Writer and Director: Anna Toogood
Anna Toogood takes the role of the “Gynae Guru” in Go With The Flow, a short slice of semi-improv comedy cabaret loosely aimed at educating her audience about the ins and outs of the 28-day menstrual cycle. The “pied piper of periods” is aided in her task by backing singers Martyna Wróbel as “Oestrogen” and Cate Brooks as “Progesterone” aka “the Wednesday Adams of hormones”.
Whether Toogood’s young, women-heavy audience needs period education is open to debate. Still, the frothy comedy and cleverly rendered songs make for an engaging 40 minutes of fringe fare (a month-long Edinburgh outing is scheduled for August). A three-piece male band (with Noah Pott as spokesperson) brings depth to the eclectic song palette, foregrounds the fact that this is a women-centred piece, and adds some subtle patter underscore to Toogood’s musings.
Toogood delivers a jazzily rewritten version of Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love to sum up the first five days of the cycle. “Guess the colour of my underwear”, she asks before a comic reflection on why sanitary product adverts feature so many women doing sports. The blood-red lighting hints at the answer. The trio of performers, all recent musical theatre graduates from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, deliver tremendous harmonies here and throughout. Toogood impresses with her vocal range and ability to seamlessly transition between contrasting song styles.
The follicular phase (genteelly named “the fuck-me phase” by Toogood) around day eight sees increasing energy and a rise in libido: cue for an impeccable version of the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun. Day 14, and we are into the ovulation phase. Oestrogen peaks, bringing an all-around, feel-good tone to proceedings and a heightened interest in forming romantic connections. We get, in swift succession, James Brown’s I Got You (I Feel Good), a rewritten version of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love, and The Weather Girls’ It’s Raining Men to make the point. Toogood crams an awful lot into the short runtime, and one wishes she would occasionally slow things down and take a beat (or just add a few more minutes of runtime).
The final two-week luteal phase marks the end of the menstrual cycle, characterised in Go With The Flow by a shift in lighting to autumnal blues and a rendition of Travis’ melancholic Britpop ballad, Why Does It Always Rain On Me. The bloating and discomfort of PMS demands nothing less than Gloria Gaynor’s anthem I Will Survive. Toogood closes events with somewhat more serious musings on the diversity of women’s (and trans men’s) experiences of menstruation, and what she sees as a generalised lack of scientific research into women’s health.
Runs until 27 July 2025
