Do your fears define you, or can you let them go? This is what Rhiannon Faith explores in her debut Edinburgh Fringe show as she and friend, Maddy Morgan, take us on a journey with their own fears and phobias and examine how therapy helped them release the tension surrounding this complex area of their lives.
They start, Faith in a psychedelic silver and pink fluffy outfit, friend Maddy in a more sombre black affair, by going through some of the many phobias people encounter on a daily basis, including some lesser known phobias such as arachibutyrophobia – a fear of peanut butter sticking to your mouth! It is a quirky start to the show filled with promise of a profound delving into what people fear most and how to beat those fears.
Unfortunately, the show is littered with unnecessary vulgarity which adds nothing to the performance as the choreography, movement, poetry and dramatic monologues are impressive enough in themselves. It feels like Faith has tried to tick too many boxes: comedy – check, rude – check, dance – check, shock the audience – check. There is a time and place for this kind of sexual humour but it isn’t needed here as the performers’ talents are far more deftly shown when they are portraying the important messages that everyone fears something and that society has a pivotal role to play when ingraining negative stereotypes of where women should be at certain stages of their lives.
The duo use a clever range of props to symbolise their struggles and there are particularly moving movements when Morgan struggles to share her fears and Faith tries to break down those barriers. As a debut performance it did enough but the pair may want to think more clearly about their target audience for the future. They are talented and so don’t need to rely on the outrageous to get their message across.