Paul T Davies reviews Bloody Elle now playing at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Fringe
Lauryn Redding. Photo: Lottie Amor Bloody Elle
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
5 Stars
Here is gig theatre at its best. Written, composed and performed by Lauryn Redding, her music is gorgeous both narratively and musically. When Elle meets Eve, a student working for the summer at Chip and Dips alongside Elle, the unexpected happens, love. Elle's world is turned upside down. It's a working class story by a performer from a working class background, still rare voices in theatre. Elle lives on the tenth floor of a high rise. Eve is on her way to Oxford university to study medicine. The show underlines how the class system blocks any real chances for relationships like this to survive. Redding is extraordinary, playing all the roles in the play with ease, engaging and warm, embracing the audience with her personality. It's a wonderful coming of age story and a coming out story, gaining cheers from the audience as we share our pride. It's funny, moving, glorious. Take the journey with Elle. Aug 10-14, 16-21, 23-28
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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