This is a tale of a young woman desperate to find love and acceptance in a world where quirkiness is mistaken for mental instability and kindness is mistaken for blind stupidity. Rosie Holt (winner of the Sitcom Trials: So You Think You Write Funny?) plays Haley, a girl who seems to willingly walk into disaster zones wherever she goes. From meeting guys (one a pesky charity donations collector and another a self obsessed reality star) to being conned in a lottery scam (seemly oblivious to the fact that you should never give out your bank details to strangers) it seems that Haley can’t escape her perpetual bad luck or indeed muster the courage to end it’s cycle. If that isn’t enough, her over-analysing internal monologue is manifested into a guitar strumming alter-ego who follows her around reminding Haley how ridiculous she is through the medium of song (think the band that follows around Ben Stiller in There’s Something About Mary). The accounts of her teenage diary-writing years were equally as mortifying, and you could feel the audience physically shrinking back to hide behind their hands with the embarrassment of what they were witnessing on stage, all the while snorting with laughter.
Altogether this is a heartwarming and hilarious story played out beautifully by the cast. Haley’s awkwardness and general aura of cringe had the audience in stitches throughout, and the addition of music (written and performed by Daniela Finley) was the perfect accompaniment for adding insult to injury for poor Haley.
My only criticism? Give them a bigger stage next time! The Wee Room at the Gilded Balloon Teviot was not nearly big enough for the cast to spread out, but they seemed to negotiate the space they did have very well considering there were four of them. This is a definite must-see for the Fringe this year, and I for one am eager to see what they come up with in 2015. Don’t miss it!