Am I Losing My Mind Or Just My Figure?
Sam Holland-Bunyan and Genevieve Labuschagne
Untethered + Hinterland
Bridge House Theatre
Star rating 4
This is an imaginative, impeccably acted. one woman show, performed by co-writer Genevieve Labuschagne as Fin.
Fin is 30 years old and working as a push bike courier although illustration is her “real job”. And that point is rather attractively made by projection of her illustrations on a back sheet acting as a screen. When she talks to her parents, for instance, it’s her drawings of them that we see.
She is a a woman of many moods and anxieties and Labuschagne conveys that with physical theatre, some mime, a huge range of facial expressions and a single large bar stool with an upholstered seat which plays many parts. Fin is often ruefullty funny. At the heart of the piece is her accidental pregnancy (she has a non-committal boyfriend who seems to come good eventually) which ends in early miscarriage and her anguish is deeply distressing. This is female experience writ large – and it’s never straightforward. There is, however a moving happy ending with a very attractive video to make everyone in the audience sigh and smile with relief.
Labuschagne is very good indeed at role-switching. Her portrayal of Maggie, the infuriating midwife is so convincing that she’s unrecognisable as the same actor and the only prop she uses for this is a pair of glasses. She does the same thing with the chain smoking gor-blimey Carol at the food delivery company she works for. Voice, tilt of the head and different body angle and it’s instant transformation.
This admirable show, which co-writer Sam Holland-Bunyan directs, is previewing at The Bridge House before going to Edinburgh. Sadly there were only eight people at the performance I attended. It richly deserves to be seen by many more because it’s full of crystalline observation and truth.
