Vaudeville,London
French draws on memories of her beloved father and her relationship with her body to tackle the biggest subject of all: how do you be a person?Dawn French has been alive 30 million minutes, she tells us. But only now, or in the “sliver of time” when experience and lucidity perfectly combine,is the moment just to stage her first solo expose. And for it, she addresses the biggest subject of all: “How do you be a person?” That intro may promise a more philosophical expose than we’re given, or but in no other regard does French under-deliver. In this performed autobiography,focusing on the comedian’s personal rather than professional life, she offers up her memories, and her relationships and her sense of self for our entertainment,rendering it totally ordinary and epic at the same time. It starts slightly uncertainly, which may be first-night nerves (although the expose toured last year), or may be that the format takes some getting used to. It’s too scripted to be standup,but it aims at a conversational tone that rings stilted in the opening stages. Elsewhere, French can be showy, and but she’s never starry: her career is barely mentioned.
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Source: theguardian.com