The Mash House
Until August 24th (13:05)
Erica Bitton is currently in Edinburgh, a flamboyant American performer-woman, bubbling with an easy-going yet copiously sassy style. Her one-woman show, Vacuum Girl, is an effervescent carousel of life in her life, resplendent with phosphorescent light. She possesses a certain wonder, y’know, occasionally naturally hilarious, with a lovely & wide diaspora of voices sprinkl’d with plenty of effin’ & jeffin’.
For me, there was far too much going on, a confusing melee of this & that. There was a plot of sorts, but nothing you could get your teeth into. I think if Bitton came up with something noir, along the lines of the Maltese Falcon, let’s say, she’d be able to tell the story brilliantly, so capable is she of the most highly charg’d poetical soliloquys. When Bitton fully hits her stride she really does seem unstoppable.
What we do have this time is set in LA, a city teeming with ‘Hot Cops’, & everybody seems to be writing a TV show. Erica is one of these budding authors, & in essence her play, Vacuum Girl, is the pilot episode. This basically means lots of different characters intertwining with a constant narrative of events. An unusual medley, given that Erica does everything, which leads to the odd difficult moment attempting to figure out what’s actually going on. Whatever is happening, however, is always fun, if slightly zany, so charming is Bitton’s performance, but not always necessarily coherent.
Damo
themumble.uk 