Comedy Review: Lucy Beaumont: Space Mam, Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), Edinburgh

Enjoyably blending down-to-earth tales of motherhood with more fantastical musings, to the extent of positing the existence of aliens, it’s telling that Lucy Beaumont offers two very different accounts of how she became a comedian, and they’re both equally outlandish.

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Back at the Fringe for the first time in five years, it’s no coincidence that the difficult arrival and behaviour of her daughter has reawakened her interest in extra-terrestrials.

Performing in an alien mask at one point, it’s a quirky interlude in an otherwise chatty, relatable hour that finds her addressing the audience as if they were her eccentric neighbours and she’s privy to their gossip.

Sleep-deprived, there’s an unmistakable fever dream quality to Beaumont’s anecdotes.

And she’s in touch with her aggression, learning a martial art and suddenly forsaking politeness to tell some people just what she thinks of them. And she shares the tacit understandings of her marriage that keep it ticking over.

Bitty but wide-ranging and relatively ambitious, Space Mam feels like the first, positive step on Beaumont’s comeback trail.

Until 25 August. Today 4:45pm. ***

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