From the beautifully crafted illustrations on her difficult-to-source overhead projectors to the yellow fans placed on everyone’s seats, Kiri Pritchard-Mclean’s third Fringe show is meticulously planned and executed throughout. Victim, Complex is a confessional, and often emotional, look at past relationships, emotional abuse, friendship, sex and mental health. The heavier and darker of these subjects might not seem ripe for comedy but Kiri’s acerbic wit makes every joke land perfectly to howls of laughter throughout the room.

Striding into the centre of the room, Kiri’s confidence and self-assurance shine through, not to mention each of the yellow sequins on her bodysuit complete with matching cape. As the show unfolds, Kiri reveals that actually in recent years her self-esteem and mental health have been completely shaken. At the heart of Victim, Complex Kiri is processing a very real, very difficult time in her life where the person she trusted the most, her boyfriend, had been gaslighting her.

Her extremely honest retelling of this time is touching and evidently hard to relive. Later in the set, Kiri states that she often thought of abandoning this show due to the emotional upheaval it caused her. Thankfully she didn’t and we are lucky that she persisted with the set, in her refusal to be thought of as a victim, instead choosing the Beyonce route by ‘lemonading‘. After all, where else would the audience be treated to a extremely realistic impression of a cat on heat, ideas for unusual ways to test a person’s love, and a comedian clearly at the top of her game?

In Victim, Complex Kiri is using her platform to say something significant, important and most of all making it bloody hilarious. Her captivating stage presence together with her hilarious insights make for a truly entertaining and thought-provoking set.