Paul T Davies reviews What Girls Are Made Of now playing at Traverse Theatre as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Cora Bissett. Photo: Sid Scott What Girls Are Made Of.
Traverse Theatre
9 August 2018
5 Stars
Cora Bissett, in 1992, desperate to break out of a small town in Fife, answers an ad in the local paper: Band seeks singer. Suddenly she is catapulted into the rock and roll lifestyle as the band, Darlingheart, tour supporting Radiohead and Blur. Then one bad review in the NME of their debut album, a manager who rips them off, a record company who don't know what to do with her, and the very brief dream is suddenly over. Using her teenage diaries, Cora tells her true story, and although it's about NOT making it, it's a total triumph. Part play, part gig, her honest appraisal of her life is the story of so many artists screwed over by managers and companies. The band are terrific, playing a range of roles as well as the superb, Indie music. Susan Bear, Simon Donaldson and Grant O'Rourke not only between them play hilarious cameo's of the Britpop stars, they also play the people important to her, the scum bags and the loved ones. In particular, her strong mother, and a beautifully poignant portrayal of her Dad suffering from dementia. And centre stage is the fantastic Cora, never self pitying, able to create a work of art about her life, empowering and tearing the place up. It's about family, friendship, music, love, survival. In the same year her Dad died, Cora become a mother. She imagines what she would say if her daughter asks her what girls are made of. Here director Orla O'Loughlin's excellent production soars as Bissett brings it home. The lyrics encompass everything that we have watched unfold as she answers that girls are made of gang huts, stilts and Go Karts, and that's just the beginning of an anthem that raises the roof and brings the audience roaring to their feet. This isn't just a play about A life, it's a play ABOUT life, and anyone who sees it will never forget the amazing Cora Bassett and her band.
BOOK NOW FOR WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF
Paul is a playwright, director, actor, academic, (he has a PhD from the University of East Anglia), teacher and theatre reviewer! His plays include Living with Luke, (UK tour 2016), Play Something, (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Drayton Arms Theatre, London 2018), , (2019), and now The Miner’s Crow, which won the inaugural Artist’s Pick of the Fringe Award at the first ever Colchester Fringe Festival 2021. In lockdown 2020 he created the audio series Isolation Alan, available on Youtube, and performed online in the Voice Box Festival. He is the founder member of Stage Write, a Colchester based theatre company, and his acting roles include Rupert in How We Love by Annette Brook, first performed at the Vaults Festival 2020 and revived at the Arcola and at Theatre Peckham in 2021. Follow: @stagewrite_
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