ASEXUALITY! - REVIEW - EDINBURGH FRINGE

As a musical nerd who recently realised that she’s almost definitely asexual, Asexuality! The Solo Musical was one of my most eagerly anticipated shows of the Fringe, and it did not disappoint.

The show charts the writer/performer, Rebecca McGlynn’s relationship with her aceness and her gender identity. As the only performer on stage, McGlynn delivers an incredible performance that captures all the nuance of the emotions associated with each scene and song. Similar to a lot of other one-person shows, the narrative requires McGlynn to play multiple characters as well as herself, which she does very impressively – at every point, you know ‘who’ is talking. This feat only becomes more impressive when you factor in the three other characters that McGlynn plays in the show (Ruth, John, and Hope) via video screen next to the stage who she interacts with throughout the show. I can only imagine how long it took to get the timing right for that but it’s so effective.

The script manages to nicely walk the line between entertaining and serious. There are lots of good laugh lines, but there are also lines and moments that stop the show dead in its tracks very effectively. Where the show could do with a smidge more development is in its songs. The lyrics felt a bit repetitive and over-simplistic at times. There is also something of a pacing problem about ¾ of the way through, which McGlynn herself acknowledges during the show. I wanted to flag it purely for completeness but I feel the solution to the problem is just to make the show longer to give the final section of the show more time to breathe. However, I feel this isn’t an issue with the show as much as it is an inherent issue with limitations surrounding timing at the Fringe, as increasing the length of your show often isn’t possible – hopefully, the show will have a future life where it can expand from 75 minutes to 90.

Overall, this is a very entertaining show that also manages to remain impactful. There are places where it could do with a bit of a tidy-up, but this is why I really hope this isn’t the last we see of this show.

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{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

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