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This may be the best performance seen on Australian stages this year
COMEDY and THEATRE
Liz Kingsman | One Woman Show ★★★★★
Malthouse Theatre, until April 23
From humble beginnings in a 50-seat theatre at the 2020 Vault Festival in Waterloo, to a multi-extended season at London’s Soho Theatre, and then catapulting to the West End and Sydney Opera House, One Woman Show is a word-of-mouth phenomenon taking over the globe in Nanette-like fashion.
A meticulously written meta show-within-a-show, Liz Kingsman performs as an unnamed character attempting to write and record, well, a one-woman show titled Wildfowl.
For a localised comparison (although Kingsman is an expat who moved abroad from Sydney for study), it’s akin to a piece by Zoë Coombs Marr, Anne Edmonds and Celia Pacquola cooked into a turducken with a steroid-infused glazing.
Layer upon layer, she skewers the proliferation of the “messy young woman” trope in modern-day culture inspired by the ilk of Fleabag, Chewing Gum Dreams, Girls, et al. A cliche that has exponentially grown to the point, where the descriptor “one-woman show” could have its own section in a fringe festival guide.
Harnessing exuberant manic pixie dream girl energy, Kingsman satirises the glorified mannerisms of social awkwardness, professional aimlessness, and an abundance of unfulfilling casual sex with panache. You can acutely dissect the construction of the show as it deconstructs others.
That’s not to mention the technical aspects of the show. All are ambitious but land with aplomb. To score one of the biggest laughs of the night with a lighting joke, when the content is so cutting, is masterful.
One Woman Show is one of the rarest of comedy festival combinations – both hilarious and with the ability to not so much shift the needle on the narrative, but absolutely pierce and rewrite the discourse.
With a Broadway stint and further global stardom no doubt on the horizon, Kingsman has found fame in lampooning a genre that others latch on to for gratuitous laughs. A glorious irony.
No show has visited our shores with as much hype in recent memory. It’s not hyperbole to state that it may be the best performance seen on Australian stages this year.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on now until April 23. The Age is a festival media partner.
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Tyson Wray is a writer and editor who has spent over a decade working on and covering cultural events in Melbourne.