Review by Tony Frame. Venue 24. Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Coorie

★★★★☆

Two minutes into this show and I think everyone in the audience knew they were in for a real treat for the duration, just from the way Olivia Mcleod’s character recounted the story of her first real crush at school, and the grandiose moment it became a reality as Cupid’s bow hit the bullseye for her. The magnificent climax of this scene (which is a sort of prologue in a way) is enhanced with a spotlight on her, in conjunction with some hallelujah type over-the-top music — a sort of Jim Carrey moment, if you will — before it ends abruptly and we’re all thrust into darkness. When the lights come on it’s the present day and our protagonist is running for the train, and so begins our journey into the heart of Junk Monkey…

Obsession and relationship addiction is the crux of the story here, with Olivia Mcleod’s excellent, multi-layered — and delightfully descriptive — script hitting all the right notes, at all the right times. Her protagonist’s hunt to try and find what could be the love of her life (a girl she randomly met on the aforementioned train) is served brilliantly with excellent narrative shifts (flashbacks) interweaving past encounters with the present plot that is unfolding before our very eyes.

Olivia Mcleod is a methodical and engaging actor who knows all the beats of her show like she’s done it a million times; she brings the right amount of humour to the stage when it’s needed, and she sells genuine angst to an audience who were all invested with her character’s plights and predicaments right from the outset. That’s a testament to all the elements (the script, the blocking, scene changes, tech) working in harmony with one another. It’s frenetic and fun, and is up there with the best of all the solo shows I’ve seen in recent years.