Comedy review: Flora Anderson: Romantic Underbelly - Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Flora Anderson: Romantic Underbelly - Bristo Square, Edinburgh * * *
Stuck in a series of soul-sapping temp jobs, forced to return to the liberal bubble of her parents' house in Islington, she wrestles with her confidence and finds her self-hatred bested only by the unvarnished loathing she attracts from an outspoken, coked-up northerner while she studies and develops plays in Manchester.
In the world of open mike comedy, she seems like a lamb to the slaughter. And it's true that she's a sometimes awkward stage presence, too chatty in her initial crowd work, often too diffident to make eye contact later on. In her sardonic asides about Fleabag, you intuit that she'd rather be performing provocative theatrical monologues than slumming it in comedy. Except that is, for the fact that she knows her way round a nicely honed routine and well-turned phrase, and reaches an epiphany of sorts about getting her head down and making the best of her circumstances.
Angsty to a fault, that nevertheless doesn't detract from her obvious potential as a stand-up.
Until 26 August
Jay Richardson