How many Fringe shows receive standing ovations? Probably a lot of the theatre productions, especially the harrowing ones. How many comedy shows receive them? Far fewer, and fewer still if they remain funny until the end and refrain from ‘pulling a Gadsby’. How many comedy show see the act receive a standing ovation and get pelted with fruit? Almost certainly (almost, it is the Fringe) just one, Claire Woolner’s ‘A Retrospection’. A possibly seminal lesson in how to win a crowd in increments, this thematically dense and spectacularly well-performed show combines clowning, performance art, and a surprisingly accessible deconstruction of the artistic life.
Woolner’s slight frame crackles with energy amid the storage boxes that contain the props that she’ll use to decimate the stage over the next hour. She starts slowly, stumming a guitar in a rudimentary fashion, grinning and winking at various members of the audience, to general bemusement. But slowly, she starts to reel everyone in as her art pieces get weirder and start to lean more into recognisable clowning, albeit an aggressive, pugnacious form that seems fuelled by a virulent strain of self-loathing.
As the show develops, there is so much going on it’s not clear at any given moment if Woolner is stringing us along, or is in real danger of losing the plot entirely. Those tears are certainly real. And that bit where she has the crowd singing ‘doorknob’ like a Gregorian chant certainly feels like a performance art piece. But then there’s a deranged and hysterical, in both senses, homage to Marina Abramovic that is surely taking the piss. And throughout, she receives voicemails from herself that act like both an inner monologue and a brutal Greek chorus kicking the show and her confidence to pieces: ‘They didn’t get that bit, they’re not going to get the rest!’
Because there’s a constant switch of tones, with Woolner pitching wildly between playful, pretentious, and terrifyingly self-flagellating with barely a second’s adjustment ‘A Retrospection’ is thrillingly tricky to get a handle on. It can be read as metatextual performance piece, a surgically accurate satire of such performances, or a genuine lament at the mental and menial drudgery that exists in the service of that one hour a day where she gets to genuinely live on stage. If she is a slave to her muse, it’s a vicious and capricious mistress.
What is without doubt is that Claire Woolner is a phenomenal actress that can manipulate an audience into peals of raucous laughter one moment and stunned silence the next – the two absolutely standout segments are great examples of each – and there is a genuine sense of unpredictability and often concern for her wellbeing. Yet incredibly, what appears like a quintessentially niche Fringe on paper becomes this incredibly engaging and masterfully-performed hour that chimes with our universal insecurities. Having said that, although there’s a standing ovation tonight, one wouldn’t be overly surprised if the next ends with her chased out of town with pitchforks. Hyperbole for sure, but it’s a show that inspires those kinds of wild thoughts.
‘A Retrospection’ runs until Sun 27 Aug 2023 at PBH’s Free Fringe @Banshee Labyrinth – Chamber Room at 23:00
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