| Old Market, Brighton
A thoroughly likable autobiographical show, comparing Suttie’s domestic midlife and her past daredevilry, hits the comic jackpot with its songs
When Isy Suttie was a girl in Matlock, Derbyshire, she always had “an urge to look for the jackpot in life … I never did anything by halves.” What do you do with that personality when you’re a middle-aged parent to two small children? That’s the subject of Suttie’s first touring show in six years – even if its focus gets fuzzy in the later stages. Whatever its gist, it’s a thoroughly likable confection, contrasting child-Isy and mum-Isy in a series of autobiographical anecdotes then – in classic mum fashion – popping all the show’s ingredients into a pot to cook up a pair of delicious songs too. To begin with, Suttie, triggered by an overheard conversation between two carefree 12-year-olds, spirits us back to her childhood – leaping off bridges for a dare, shuttling between house parties, and cultivating her local notoriety as a queen of Ouija. Nothing is ever as intensely felt as our own youth, a point sharply made when Suttie contrasts her wild childhood with the conversations she now must endure with her cautious, surprise-averse other half. As the show progresses, though, the theme that coalesces isn’t her lost daredevilry, it’s her faith in the metaphysical. One pivotal scene finds Suttie under infant scrutiny when caught laying a Christmas stocking by her seven-year-old’s bed. Another conjures with signals her father may be sending her from beyond the grave. Touring until 5 November. Continue reading... |
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