Theatre review: Round ‘Ere, Venue 13, Edinburgh

THOUGH we first encounter her dishevelled and prone on a park bench, still wearing last night’s pelmet skirt and heels, playing with her phone, swigging a can of lager and basically appearing to embody the worst excesses of ladette/chav culture, young Katherine Pearce skewers a lot of stereotypes in this all too brief self-penned monologue.

Round ’Ere

Venue 13 (Venue 13)

Star rating: * * *

Drawing on her own working-class upbringing in north-west England, Round ’Ere has already seen its author, a recent drama graduate, being championed as a writer by Shameless’s Paul Abbott, and it’s not hard to see why. Pearce crafts her mix of narrative, polemic, confessional and satire into brilliantly fluent, craftily rhymed rap-style poetry, yet somehow keeps it conversational and in character without contrivance. “Katie”, as depicted here, is a promiscuous binge drinker with a brain, a member of the underclass who understands exactly how she and her home region have been dispossessed, an embodiment of “broken Britain” who derides Cameron from the security of her close-knit family. Lasting a bare 20 minutes, the show is very much an initial stretching of creative wings, but as part of the Free Fringe, offers exceedingly good value for your time, together with the chance to catch a tantalising new talent.

• Until 25 August. Today 12:30pm.