The Debutante Diaries

Things haven’t been made easy for Australian actress Kate McLennan.

Firstly, her show would fit much more comfortably in the theatre section of the Fringe programme than it does in comedy

While there’s lots of gently scathing humour in this one-woman about the build-up to a debutante ball, plus a few delicious drops of pure venom, it’s McLennan’s multi-character performance that most impresses. The show is billed as a cross between Mean Girls and Carrie, but the ending is far soppier than that combination of influences would suggest.

The second difficulty is one of soundproofing. On the night I attended a raucous party seemed to kick off next door – presumably this happens every other night, too – at exactly the same time that McLennan began introducing her characters.

It’s credit to the actress that she didn’t so much as flinch amid all the commotion. What’s more, she succeeds in giving even superficially similar characters unique voices. There’s peppy narcissist Crystelle, her frenemy Stacey, persecution-seeking gay Adam and cynical chain-smoking teacher Carla, to name but a few.

As a showcase for McLennan’s talent it’s effective; as a piece of theatre it’s not clear who the target audience is. The Debutante Diaries manages to be at once cynical and pure of heart; as much as it wants to deride the whole nauseating concept of the coming out ball, it can’t help but be a little misty-eyed about the whole overblown affair.