Theatre review: The Last of the Pelican Daughters, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

The Last of the Pelican Daughters, Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

“Pull your tits up,” was the advice given by matriarch Rosemary Pelican to her four adult daughters whenever they expressed problems with the world.

The Last of the Pelican Daughters, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh * * *

“When I was your age I was on the picket line getting touched up by the miners,” she would say, and this memory she wouldn’t relate as a traumatic experience, but rather an avuncular, matter-of-fact rite of passage.

Rosemary has died, and her daughters Joy, Storm, Sage and Maya return to the family home to divide her will, with Storm tentatively broaching the subject that she should be suitably recompensed for the time she spent caring for their unwell mother. Such odd pieces of homespun wisdom encapsulate the straight-talking, darkly humorous edge of this eccentric family comedy from the Wardrobe Ensemble, the creators of the hit Education Education Education.

Until 25 August.

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