Lucie Barât is the sister of Carl, frontman and lead guitarist in indie-rock band, The Libertines. Her show, ‘Standing In The Shadows Of Giants’, is billed as being about her experiences as a rock star’s sister. But as she warns us early doors, her brother is context, not the main content. This in fact is a show about one woman’s journey to find herself.

If you value a trigger warning, this show should have several. Barât had a pretty bad time with men and maybe because of that or maybe not, she started taking pills alongside her alcohol and wound up dealing with addiction. Her script is interesting for what it doesn’t say as much as what it says. While her friends seem keen to bundle her into rehab to help break her bad habits, there’s a sense that her brother is allowed, even expected, to embrace these excesses as he’s a rock star. He’s also a man.

Whilst her brother attracted all the attention, turns out Lucie has a pretty awesome voice herself. Her monologue is interspersed with original music co-written with her brother and Pete Doherty. The music helps to punctuate Barât’s brutally honest account of her relentlessly self-destructive substance misuse as she attempts to build her own credible career as an actor. She’s funny, self-effacing, all too willing to share her wrong turns and bad decisions, and all too aware of the cultural norms in the celebrity world that made her addiction so hard to interrupt.

A glossy stage befitting a rock star in her own right (Amelia Jane Hankin), thoughtful direction from Bryony Shanahan and a carefully constructed soundtrack (Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, Russell Ditchfield) combine in this tightly wound drama. The final revelation, beautifully enhanced with a shower of radiant light (Mark Distin Webster), is a satisfying full stop – though as becomes clear, this new knowledge allowed Barât’s life to begin.

‘Standing in the Shadows of Giants‘ is at Traverse Theatre – Traverse 2 until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 16:00