Theatre review: Buzzing, PQA Venues @ Riddle’s Court (Venue 277b), Edinburgh

“Let’s go girls.” Shania Twain’s playing, the room is lit like a nightclub and on stage there’s a bottle of white wine and some vibrators.
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This initially seems like the kind of show designed to make certain kinds of men feel uncomfortable.

However, it’s actually a touching (and not just in the obvious ways) story of 50-something Julie’s adventures in love and sex, following the break-up with a husband who accuses her of being “boring in bed” but is oblivious to the warmth and humour of her quietly revolutionary character.

Writer/performer Debbie Bird’s matter-of-fact narration creates the relaxed mood of a homely chat, with vibrating sex toys demystified to a point where they might as well be the electric toothbrush that she at one point likens them to.

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Also appearing as a similar (or possibly the same) character in Love and Sex and All Things In-between, Bird is a brilliant performer, whose well-structured writing is given extra oomph by Mark Farrelly’s pacey direction.

As Julie rattles through an eclectic series of unsuitable men, it’s a joy to watch an empowered woman of a certain age living her life and having fun, as so many are, but we hear too little about.

Until 26 August. Today 7pm

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