Beverley - A One Woman Show | The Herald review

Beverley, Gilded Balloon (Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

STARTLINGLY portrayed by Valerie Frances, an unfeasibly tall actress with the ultra-lean skyscraper frame of a predatory supermodel, Beverley is a mini-skirted Cockney sex- addict, thrill-seeker and drug-freak. More to the point, the apparently street- wise Beverley is also a terminally insecure seeker- after-permanent-love, a young woman entirely devoted to seeking to gauge her own worth in her reflection in mens’ eves.

Naturally, she chooses a bunch of wrong ‘uns and wasters. Natasha Langridge’s monologues are a full-on mix of filth, fury, and poetic magnificence, best summarised by imagining the literary outcome if Dylan Thomas had ever had to compose readers’ letters for a hard-core porno mag. Echoing Trainspotting for hedonistic excess and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels for metropolitan underworld vigour, Beverley is a theatrical experience that’s akin to standing in front of two smoking railway tunnels in anticipation of a pair of runaway trains.

Review by David Belcher