Comedy review: Ange Lavoipierre: Final Form, Underbelly

Ange Lavoipierre: Final Form, Underbelly, George Square (Venue 300)

Considering that this is essentially a show about a single millennial struggling to pin down their identity, of the kind frankly clogging up the Fringe, there's so much to admire and appreciate in Ange Lavoipierre's creative debut.

Ange Lavoipierre: Final Form, Underbelly - George Square, Edinburgh * * *

From the moment the Australian takes the stage with her teeth menacingly bared, the explanation for which becomes a refrain and justification for her behaviour, the sometime journalist spins a compelling yarn. Her problem isn't so much that she's unsure of herself, but her selves, worried about the conflicting versions that will emerge at her funeral, as all the various social narratives she's painstakingly kept apart come crashing together.

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Preparing for that possibility, she's invited the likes of her father, mentor and ex-boyfriend to attend this run-through, played by members of the audience reading cue cards of reassuring sentiment. Drawing from the theories of eminent US sociologist Erving Goffman, Lavoipierre winds herself up into an existential crisis of contradictory stories of snail genocide; playing the cello as she recites phenomenon that stress her out and unsettling, plinky-plonk tunes for her hypothetical children to understand why mummy's unhinged.

Bold, scattergun but often delightful, Final Form is a great calling card for an intense but likeable act.

Until 26 August

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Comedy review: Ange Lavoipierre: Final Form, Underbelly - George Square, Edinburgh