Theatre review: Beach Body Ready, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Beach Body Ready, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh * * *
"Yes," a number of people good-naturedly reply. While this is the kind of "inspirational show" that performers Rachael Abbey, Jess Morley, and Sarah Penney playfully poke fun at, it's also a fun piece of raucous entertainment in which three sunshine-infused women carry out a series of comic songs, sketches and the odd serious bit to demonstrate that their characters are bigger than not only their bodies but also the stage.
A piece that will perhaps relate most to anyone who has a difficult relationship with their bodies, rather than those who don't, when Sarah, size 22, answers the comment, "You're not fat you're beautiful," with "I'm both", it still feels like a radical statement, even though it's true. When women in the media are still often judged purely by what they look like, this show is a living, breathing antidote in which three defiant and, at times, not so defiant (but that's OK too) friends acknowledge, poke fun at and embrace who they are, while hoping for a world in which everyone else can do the same.
Until 26 August