Theatre review: Yvette

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: This impressive poetic debut by Urielle Klein-Mekongo tells the story of a typical Neasden teenager cut down by an opportunistic ­predator, using verse, song and beats, layered up with a loop pedal to atmospheric and ­sometimes anguished effect.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Aug 2017, 16:32 BST
Updated 12th Sep 2017, 11:28 BST

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33)

***

Klein-Mekongo ­credibly captures the screechy indignation and everyday ­anxieties of the bright, bolshy 13-year-old Evie, who cannot wait to use her JLS condoms for the first time, ­preferably on her friend Lewis, as well as the tragically misplaced ­priorities of her strict mum, who unwittingly spurs her daughter’s downfall by ­inviting the murky Uncle Jay to stay.

Extrovert Evie is ­gradually ground down by ­rejection from her frustrated mum, well-meaning dad and bemused intended, the looped insults echoing around the room in a literal chorus of disapproval, only marginally less painful to hear than the sinister ­mantra of seduction and betrayal Klein-Mekongo creates using a pitchshifter for the chilling Uncle Jay as he moves in for the kill.

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Yvette is inventive, unflinching, cumulatively claustrophobic and cruelly ­believable without browbeating its audience but you may well be gasping for air and light by the end.

Until 26 August. Today 2:15pm.