Caroline Mabey: One Minute Silence

Right from the off, Caroline Mabey wants you to feel part of the show. She greets each of us individually as we enter and welcomes us to her training course, promising that, by the end of the hour, most of us will be capable of completing a one minute silence.

The training course gives a good structure to Mabey’s quirky, off-beat humour, through it quickly becomes clear that no train of thought will continue for too long. While she flits back and forth between topics, and zig-zags across the path that is her theme, it is captivating and cute rather than confusing.

At times, it feels as though Mabey is playing a life-sized game of dolls and that she is performing for her own enjoyment – she even labels members of the audience as celebrities, maggots, house cats, and ‘Enrique’. Exuding all of the openness, curiosity, and enthusiasm of a child, she is an absolute delight to watch.

Fantastically ditzy and spectacularly absurd, this meandering whirligig of a show leaves you feeling a little bit dizzy and a big bit happy. A joy to behold.