Annie McGrath @ Pleasance Courtyard
A strong debut from Annie McGrath.
| 14 Aug 2016
'Angelic, but dead eyed', is how McGrath describes herself. It’s quite an accurate description, she’s got a pleasant, natural way with an audience that she’s happy to undermine with edgy material that never feels forced or deliberately provocative.
Her debut solo show The Seven Ages of An is remarkably assured. McGrath has the confidence of someone who’s been telling jokes for a long time. The show itself takes the audience through seven alternative versions of Annie. While the likes of Katia Kvinge and Lolly Adefope utilise wardrobes and voice acting skills in their role as character comedians, McGrath takes a deliberately minimal approach in her definition of each ‘An’.
She says this show was written to show a certain famous friend (I won’t tell you who but here’s a clue: she's the UK’s best known fictional witch) that she’s got range. On this evidence she doesn’t quite prove that conclusively, but she does reveal herself as a real master of deadpan. Her delivery is delightfully dry, but she knows precisely when to raise an eyebrow, or pull off a macabre dance, to animate proceedings.
Annie McGrath: The Seven Ages of An, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker One), 3-28 Aug (not 17), 4:45 pm, £6-9.
http://www.edfringe.com