Joanna Neary's Little Moments
Show + Tell Productions
There's something of Joyce Grenfell about Joanna Neary, except that Miss Grenfell would not be associated with some of her lyrics. Particularly not with the worst Eminem tribute singer in the world, all giggly little leaps and bounces until the great moment of being able to say the words.
Show starts at 16;45.
"Something special ... a modest, intimate show"
There's an air of amateur naivety which hides some very cleverly worked out routines. The songs are a good case in point; they sound rather rambly and woolly until the words creep up and catch you out. The dances, too, grow in hilarity as over-literal interpretation gets ever more surreal.
But it's her comic creations caught up in life's little moments that make the show something special. The fund raiser for a bongo group who have applied for an Arts Council grant to buy their first bongo for instance ' watch out for her on the Royal Mile. Or the two friends, one of whom is into arts and the other into crafts, and never the twain shall see eye to eye.
Even better are the school assembly play War Is Bad, and the deliriously funny, frightfully nervous lecturer who has to resort to her own illustrated notebook for her talk on sex aids when her Powerpoint display won't work.
Best of all, though, is her Celia Johnson from Brief Encounter, lusting after all sorts of common working men as she goes about her buttoned-up everyday life. The hat is worth the price of admission on its own.
If you need an extra reason there are the delightful extracts from Neary's own schoolgirl diaries. We know they are her own because she shows them to us and 'I wouldn't waste my best stickers on a prop'. It's a modest, intimate show in exactly the right space; one of those shows where the jokes creep up on you and have you laughing before you realise it.
Until August 26 2007 at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh (part of Edinburgh Fringe). Tel: 0131 556 6550. www.pleasance.co.uk
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