Comedy: Isy Suttie

In A RECENT interview, Isy Suttie revealed her worst ever gig to have been at a student venue. Inviting a merciless heckler onstage to somehow thrust shame and dignity upon the soused cad, her plan backfired horribly as she found herself on the receiving end of a very public groping.

At this Edinburgh Uni Freshers Week show, there was no such threat as a relatively sedate crowd lapped up Matlock-born Suttie's character-fuelled musical tale of smalltown ambition and claustrophobic desire with Love Lost in the British Retail Industry.

Suttie first performed the show three years ago in this very same courtyard, but since then has got a bit more famous thanks to her part as Dobby in Peep Show. This fact alone may explain why she has been able to upgrade from a cellar to a theatre for her first national touring show, and before plunging into the story she was happy enough to dish out some words of encouragement for the undergraduates, accompanied by her own memories of escaping home and filling posh shoes with vomit.

Kicking off with her splendid "Amy Winehouse down a well" impersonation, Suttie's show brings to life the awkward relationship between Carl (an "ironic vegan" shelf-stacker) and Lisa (a loose checkout girl who yearns for a life some "8 per cent better") whose fates are redirected by an Alanis Morissette-influenced US singer-songwriter Mary Westenberger and a Fairy Godmother played like a female Leslie Phillips. It's a heartfelt if never rib-threatening show and a reminder of Suttie's subtle talents.