You can tell something’s in the air at this year’s fringe when you see a comic hitherto associated with jolly parody songs and even she is reciting her recent correspondence with the Samaritans. Lots of comedians have mental-health shows at Edinburgh but if we’re drowning in the tears of clowns then Rachel Parris throws in tears of laughter too. Her Samaritans emails feel tweaked for comic effect, her conclusion a mite too easily engineered for uplift – but this remains a compelling hour, as Parris fronts up about feelings on which women are usually obliged to put a brave face.
Best Laid Plans is about the grown-up Parris expected to be when she was six – house, car, husband, kids – and how real life has refused to play ball. “I’m not married, but on the plus side I do get to go to a lot of weddings,” she says, through gritted teeth. There’s forthright material on the female orgasm, culminating in Parris’s answer to the faux-sexy Flight of the Conchords song Business Time. Another number eschews lyrical invention in favour of gloating “I went to the gym” against a soaring melodic backdrop.
At the show’s tender heart, though, is an account of Parris’s recent breakup, which pitched her for the first time into depression. She’s endearingly frank and funny about the experience, even if the sometime jauntiness of her Samaritans correspondence sits uneasily with the air of emotional candour. But it’s all beautifully crafted and performed.
- At Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 28 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
