Review by Steve Bennett

The audience was mainly middle aged and female, which is probably an unfortunate side-effect of the billing. Unfortunate as this is a great show, and men should not be deterred by an all-female cast doing sketches about family, relationships and sexuality.

Beneath these themes are hilarious characters portraying the worse kind of irritating mothers, wives and daughters, hitting the nail on the head with sympathetic characters we can all relate to.

I was particularly taken by Kathy Greenwood’s character, constantly trying to keep up with the other stay-at-home mums in the competitive parenting stakes. And everyone can identify with feeling trapped by a lonely parent’s needs in the sketch which has a woman desperately trying to get off the phone to both a clingy mother and granny. And without giving any more away, the sketch with three woman scattering their dead friend’s ashes was inspired.

Although the characters were quirky, funny and at times ridiculous (the French shop assistant Mona, for instance), they were portrayed with such respect and sometimes poignancy that you developed the type of empathy with them it would normally take a full-length show to feel.

Rarely have I seen this quality of sketch comedy on television here, let alone at the Fringe. So grab a chance now. Unless you can get tickets to Saturday Night Live in New York you are unlikely to see such good sketch comedy live for a while.

Reviewed by: Rosie Carnahan

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett