★★★★☆

Review by Natalia Milne. Venue 33 Pleasance Courtyard – Cabaret Bar @ 20:20

Jayde Adams emerges on the stage dressed all in white with her arms outstretched to the tune of the world’s greatest pop song – Like a Prayer. At first glance it seemed that she was styling herself as the antithesis of the person she portrayed in her critically acclaimed Amazon special Serious Black Jumper. I hadn’t known what to expect from this show but in that moment I knew that I was in for a treat.

My initial thoughts were not wrong as the hour-long set flew by and involved discussions of Adams’ own journey to find love, sex, and healing herself from a victim mentality. The overall theme of the show is the concept of saviour and the saviour complex. This is defined as a need to solve other people’s problems; of self-sabotaging yourself in order to fix someone else.  She parodies the self-help gurus and motivational speakers who often employ cult-like tactics to extend their power over their followers. Power (another central theme of the show) is examined through the angle of gender. How can men be guided through this shift in their centuries-old stronghold on power? Adams sets her mind to sympathise and assist men in this journey.

Studies have shown that during live performances audience members’ heartbeats synchronise. Adams invites us, the audience, to really feel in communion with each other. We laughed and chanted, talked to each other, and in the end we cried together as well. Adams also talks about the hormones in charge of human behaviour such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline and oxytocin – the love hormone. She does this to show us what we all have in common and what drives us to act in the way we do.

There were very few negatives about her show (a small mime element doesn’t necessary flow as well as the rest of the set) and my preconceived notions were that an audience of mostly women would be invited to laugh therapeutically about the injustices we face as women and then walk away with a sharp sense of righteous anger. Instead, I walked away feeling hopeful and lighter from this hilarious show that’s not to be missed.