GRIEF LIGHTNING: A SATIRE IN 78 SLIDES - REVIEW

When going through the Fringe programme looking for shows I was interested in, Grief Lightning was one that sold me purely on its description as it is possibly one of the weirdest ideas for a show I’ve ever heard – an academic is trying to convince an audience that the movie Grease is actually the death dream of one of the characters. This to me seemed like peak Fringe.

For this show to work, the performance by the lecturer has to be pitch-perfect. Obnoxious enough to be a send-up of academia, entertaining enough that you don’t hate the lecturer etc. Mary Angley manages to spin all of these plates at once. Watching her performance truly feels like watching a master at work.

The show itself also fully lives up to the expectations it sets for itself. This show genuinely is what it says on the tin and it’s as hilarious as you would hope that it would be. Something I wasn’t expecting however that was a pleasant surprise was how much a feeling of community built up among the audience as we all watched this very odd play. This is partly due to the subject matter at hand but is also helped by Angley’s incredible performance and their really effective use of audience interaction.

There were some parts of the show that I’m still not quite sure I understood which spoke more to social issues touched on in Grease, and aspects of the film that haven’t aged well. These sections do work but they do come a little out of nowhere and don’t fit incredibly well into the show as a whole. However, there is an argument to be made that these just make the show even more surreal.

If you’re looking for late-night Fringe entertainment, you could do far worse than Grief Lightning. Especially if you’re looking for the weird gems of the Fringe, this is the show for you.

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

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