Character comedian Rhiannon Shaw is getting married for real just after the Fringe. We can only hope that her actual ceremony is less chaotic than her debut show. Rhiannon’s extended family insist on having their say in the proceedings; a cavalcade of misogynist cousins, disapproving mothers, and flower girls, as well as an overly nervous officiant. It’s a fun showcase for the versatile Shaw, although some characters work better than others in the context of the show.
Rhiannon begins strongly with Claire, a French flower girl with a slightly sinister air about her. She’s taking the opportunity ahead of the wedding to look for a new family. It’s a tricky proposition to be winsome and a wee bit disquieting, but Shaw manages it with aplomb. It’s a lovely bit of physical comedy combined with voice work – it might also be Rhiannon’s petite stature – but the transformation is strangely convincing. And she gets her new family, although you would suspect that she would absolutely be prepared to use coercion. The only thing that would make her more creepy would be an identical twin.
Also great is Elsie McClutchey, a long-standing character in Shaw’s repertoire, here repurposed as the mother of the bride. A stentorian middle-aged oddball from Dumfries and Galloway, she drags a member of the audience on stage and berates him as Rhiannon’s layabout ex. Then she tries to seduce him. ‘Worth a shot,’ she shrugs when a flash of thigh peeking from under her yellow rain mac fails to have him swooning.
Officiant Kyle perhaps works a little too well. A painfully nervous Kiwi in a neck brace (RSI apparently), Kyle is struggling with the celebratory mood as he usually conducts funerals. Shaw nails the excruciating awkwardness and his tendency for jabbering so well that is spreads to the audience. The vicarious cringe factor is very real. Rhiannon barrels on through it, but it feels like she’s very much a victim of her own success here and it’s a relief when Kyle leaves, our collective sphincters loosen, and Shaw is back onstage in the guise of herself to guide us to the next character.
A few other characters fit less well into the wedding theme. Cousin Cinnamon is a stereotypical incel who has turned up uninvited. Again, Shaw embodies the character well, demonstrating again her versatility and gift for distinct voices, but he isn’t one of her stronger creations overall; a little bit of a broad caricature rather than a well-rounded character. Also not quite fitting the setting is an aging folk singer that seems to be based on Joan Baez. While she allows Shaw to demonstrate a very impressive tremolo, it’s another character that feels slightly like filler.
Despite some of the attendees at the wedding being, pretty much inevitably, more memorable than others, Rhiannon Shaw is clearly a very talented performer, more than gifted enough to adjust her joke style between characters successfully, which speaks to her experience of writing gags for a number of well-known names. ‘Wedding Night’ is a fun, breezy show for which you won’t regret sending an RSVP to confirm your attendance.
‘Wedding Night’ runs until Sun 27 Aug 2023 at Bedlam Theatre at 14:00