Edinburgh Fringe Review: Lazy Susan, Assembly George Square

#MeToo is a watershed for the arts, and comedy is responding loud and clear. I don’t mean to put two young female comedians alongside the hashtag without good grounds, but Lazy Susan want to take us there themselves, handling a heavy matter with their signature light touch, plus a lot of laughs.

Yes, we are entering into a ‘safe space’ (an unlikely description of Assembly’s shipping container ‘The Box’), one in which the duo’s promise of light entertainment on a wet afternoon is fulfilled by some of their more whimsical and acutely observed sketches and characters. But it’s the darker strains of humour that strike through the silliness that make this show. From the ‘warm’ welcome, to some very well-sustained audience engagement, Lazy Susan are two powerful women, not about to let us forget about their power, or their womanhood.

Freya Parker plays the anxious one, afraid of bad omens. The show is brilliantly punctuated with phone calls that crank the tension as the show goes on. As they move through well-observed sketches, from the male gaze to a food delivery service from a couple of self-proclaimed fussy (‘I like what I like!’) eaters, Parker and Celeste Dring grow as ever stronger characters in their own right. Whether the anxiety consuming Parker is an exaggeration of truth or all-for-show, it propels the drama at the heart of this show forward, and helps us all understand - and envy - the support to be found as one half of a double act.

These two women are funny, but to describe them as funny women, or girls, would only prove them right. They are thoughtful, insightful comedians, and prove to be masters of the call back in this expertly woven show. But more than that they remind us all what a year 2018 has been.

Until August 27. Tickets here.

Read more Edinburgh Fringe reviews here.

****

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