Review by Steve Bennett

Four-woman sketch group Umbrella Girls (Mark Watson’s wife Emily Watson Howes, plus Kate Donmall, Kerry Howard and Susanna Hislop) have hired a Portaloo for this most Fringey of Fringe experiences. Packed into one end of the tiny room, the audience watch a parade of characters going about their business.

They chat on their mobiles, break down in tears, gossip, bitch, row, preen and reassure each other. Good job this is set in a women’s toilet; the range of behaviour in a gent’s would be a lot more limited. Men rarely strike up a conversation in the these circumstances, but women will – even if the encounter is always going to come with a certain level of awkwardness, ideal to exploit for comedy.

Sitting in the audience of such an odd venue, you do feel unusually close to the action, eavesdropping on snippets of other people’s lives. That feeling is only heightened by the note-perfect performance of the quartet, producing naturalistic characters that remain believable, even when they are accompanied by a giant parrot mascot.

A novice stand-up runs nervously through her set in front of a mirror; a stressed-out high-flier tries to queue-jump even if her job doesn’t seem that demanding; a rebellious young actress rails angrily against her well-meaning middle-class mother; or a young girl talks excitedly about her friend’s rape as if it was just another hilarious anecdote.

These are unusual angles with imaginative scripts and very, very well-performed across the board. But no sketch can be quite as hilarious as the unsuspecting passer-by who genuinely popped in to use the facilities, only to be met by a dozen expectant faces staring at her.

Yes, the toilet setting can be seen as a gimmick, but it’s one the Umbrella Birds have exploited brilliantly, so it never seems contrived. They are all great actresses and the inventiveness shines through. Their future careers are most definitely not down the toilet.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett