@ Just the Tonic @ The Caves, Edinburgh, until Sat 29 Aug 2015 @ 13:00
This is a charming, hilarious and very relatable show. Written and performed by the talented Nicola Wren, this one-woman play follows the character’s stream of consciousness, as she takes us through her recent break-up. The audience get a peek into the inner life of this twenty-something woman, witnessing what is really going on behind the Facebook statuses and Instagram photos, which form the public version of so many of our lives.
While being incredibly entertaining and light hearted, the show also highlights the way in which social media has become so embedded in our social existence. The twenty-four year old ‘M’, whose random chatter we are exposed to, communicates to her outside world through status updates and selfies, and cannot seem to tear herself away from following her ex-boyfriend’s new life documented all over her newsfeed. The picture she paints of her unravelling relationship, details the number of photos of the couple on social media and how many messages that were sent back and forth, which suggests superficiality in the way we relate to one another in this digital age.
Nicola plays the character with ease and her performance has a natural flow to it: it doesn’t feel like you’re sitting in a theatre (or rather, a cave-like Fringe venue). Rather, it’s like having a chat in your mate’s room over a cup of tea and some biscuits. This leads to a refreshing piece of theatre and an entertaining hour, which will have you laughing away.