Written By: Cassie Cormican

Divorce may not typically be a laughing matter. However, today I had the opportunity to watch Sarah Iles, a stand-up comedian, who talks her audience through the absolute joys of being divorced. In her show Decree Absolute Vodka, Iles begins by asking who may also be divorced in the audience. For a such a small venue, I was surprised at the mass amount of people who were. She cracks of some jokes to play around, and has the entire room in tears.

This natural story-teller takes us through her journey about how stand-up comedy became her life, and she eventually fell out of love with her spouse. She begins by explaining where her and her ex-partner had met and fell in love. Ironically, this was the same place where she had decided that she did not love him anymore.

For those of you wondering, a Decree Absolute is a court of law’s final order officially ending a marriage. Here in the UK, Iles stresses about how difficult it was to get a divorce and how the process seems to never end. The only thing getting her through this tough time; Absolute Vodka. Iles play on words as the title of her show was genius and humorous.

After going through a rollercoaster of emotions throughout this journey, Iles had shared quite a lot of crude and personal information about her now single, dating life. Again, the crowd could not wipe the smile off their face. During her performance, Iles pulls out a poster board and yells, “WE’RE GOING TO PLAY FAMILY FORTUNE!” Again, given the size of the venue and the amount of people there, I did not expect her to interact with her audience as much as she did, yet she even had a game ready for us to play along.

If you can appreciate the truth of how life knocks you down at times, Decree Absolute Vodkais a perfect show. Iles creates a space where the harsh reality of life is just something we must laugh at in order for us to not dwell. I applaud her bravery by telling her story about her hardships, and because I found her performance relatable, I had enjoyed myself even more.

Written By: Cassie Cormican

Have you ever been lost in an unfamiliar city? Not only that, but have you ever been locked inside an unfamiliar room where you only have one hour to escape? Here in Edinburgh, I had the opportunity to experience my first escape room. Locked in Edinburgh: Secret Lab, was a trilling experience that was constantly challenging my mind. As four others and myself took on this challenge, we found ourselves overwhelmed with clues and obstacles to pass.

Before we had entered the room, we were sat down to watch an informative video of why we were there and what our “mission” was. Although this video was full of humor, I had wished that the guide was more interactive and enthusiastic about what we were about to become involved in. This could have accentuated the experience by creating a life like thriller.

Teamwork was really the only way to succeed in this mind puzzling experiment, where my group and I had been tested to the maximum. This brilliant team bonding exercise proved that to beat the game, we would truly need to place ourselves in the investigators shoes. Personally, I had felt as though it was not a game, and that time was not on my side. These challenging obstacles had really tested how our group could problem solve, rather than testing the knowledge we have, which I personally loved!

This course was made for people who may have a bit of previous experience with escape rooms. Although, we were able to get relatively close to beating the game, we simply ran out of time. I would highly recommend this course when visiting Edinburgh. Again, I had really wished that our guide played more of a role during this experience, pretending like the investigation was real. However, this had overall been a great experience and I would most definitely like to try another course constructed by this production.

Written By: Cassie Cormican

Beauty does not look the same in every eye. Beauty is defined by each individual so intricately different, where a precise definition simply will never be put into words. In the performance Everything I see I Swallow, two female aerial artists create an intimate story about their mother daughter relationship, and their disagreement about how a true feminist should express herself.

In the opening act, the younger performer feels like she is out of her body with little control over it. She questions if the only thing that can make her beautiful is if other people think so based on her appearance. After having sex for the first time, the aerialist becomes even more conflicted. I could feel the rush of her emotions while she stressed about whether what she had just done was good or bad, right or wrong. Aerial performance requires the woman to have absolute control of their bodies, even though most times, woman feel as if they do not.

I was stunned, not only by their magnificent talent, but by the passion I saw lit in the performers eyes. As a metaphor for feeling tied up and not in control of oneself, the choice of using rope for their aerial skills was extremely clever. The two performers began to argue about how a real feministic woman should express herself, creating the strenuous relationship between past and current feminists.

At moments, I found myself lost in their dialogue. But nonetheless, the strength of the two woman performers prevails. Another metaphor that can also be acknowledged would be that empowerment can be the chain that binds us together. Although the beginning controversy between mother-daughter feminist puts their expressive artwork into question, the triumph of acceptance for the other become profound.

The message of being able to be proud and own one’s body, was absolutely phenomenal. Quotes from well-known female feminists appeared on the backdrop behind the woman, as they rehearsed their famous words. Pairing with (what looked to be both effortless yet exhausting) aerial artwork, I could truly feel those words come to life.

Just like beauty, feminism will never be clearly defined. It is an act that constantly undergoes generational changes. From a woman’s perspective, the mental battles which then are shown physically using the ropes, create a fabulous dynamic of constant combat and togetherness. Overall, the intergenerational feminist performers had me in awe.

Written By: Cassie Cormican

Imagine you’re in a confined space where there are no lights and you are simply just… there… still. Your vision has been completely taken away, where you are submerged into the darkness. A low, soft voice soothingly speaks aloud in the distance. The voice approaches you, raising every hair on your body.

This is just a snippet of my experience of the performance Coma today. I never truly realized how dependent I was on visual sense when experiencing a performance. Coma truly accentuated an audio experience, where the images became prominent in my head. I was able to create a story in my own mind that aligned with the audio senses I was experiencing. The production did a phenomenal job placing the voices at what seemed to sound like the perfect distance, given the size of the room.

Not only were the sound effects creating a whole new experience for me, but the performance also incorporated scent. Again, without visuals, it was unexpected. I became aware of smells that I would typically not notice if it had already been in front of me. But by eliminating my sight, my sensory overload kicked in and I was able to turn my focus on other senses that became more apparent.

Finally, Coma challenged me and the rest of the audience by tempting us to heighten our experience by swallowing a small pill. It would not harm anyone and you were only to take it if you wanted to. Reflecting on this experience, I’ve come to realize that this was a clever way the performers could test their audiences limits even further. The contradicting commentary made it as though I could not decide what to do, and because I was in the dark, I had no idea as if anyone else had swallowed the pill either. This decision was to be made completely voluntarily, without others influence. I saw this performance as a format of simply becoming aware of one’s self-motivation, swayed by persuasion.

Overall, I would highly recommend this performance. It was like none other than before, where I experienced scent and audio sensory overload. However, I would only recommend this performance to those who are comfortable being in a confined space, unable to see. This performance tested my personal limitations while making me aware of the scenes we may neglect when truly experiencing a show. Coma was a first time experience for myself and I would personally really enjoy experiencing again.

Darkness is within us all. Our worries and fears may create a version of ourselves, that show the most horrid and ugly moments of an individual. However, our personal darkness differs from every other person. In the production Jekyll and Hyde, the actors and actresses create an interactive environment by inviting their audience to acknowledge the fact that we “push down” our own personal darkness. This reoccurring theme is then brought into the story telling of Jekyll and Hyde, however adding major comical twists.  

I must applaud the performers pre-show audience interaction techniques. By walking up and conversing with the audience members, I felt very welcomed and eager to see more. This was also a clever engagement technique where this allowed the performers to gather intake on audience members they were going to later include in the performance. As the production began, the performers truly utilized as much space as they possible could given the size of the room; roaming up and down the aisles, back to exit doors, turning around and ending up on the opposite side of the room, my eyes were constantly traveling. 

While my head was frequently turning with performance all around, I felt like a kid in a candy store, never once losing the smile on my face. However, unlike a kid, the comedy and language may only be suitable for adults. By bringing in crude remarks and creative satire, this truly accentuated the overall performance. Reoccurring witticisms happened to also allow the audience to really engage with the performers as well. For example, when Philip would go on his long, avid rants about his past relationship (with audience member Haley), the other performers would rehearse the phrase, “Excuse him he is very passionate. He is very French.” While this was occurring, I would hear audience members chant the phrase repeatedlyas well.  

At one point in the show, it goes dark. Music is blasted through the speakers as a dim purple light highlights the performers faces onstage. To my surprise, a soundtrack was not what I was hearing, but the performers singing and rapping modern day songs. Again, I was overly impressed with the variety of talent these performers had to offer.  

Luckily, I had been sitting next to two women who had been called on and utilized in the performance as audience interactors. One of them unknowingly got to play a major role in the performance by offering up her phone when an actress wanted to film a video of her co-performer. Not only did this add to the overall story, but the woman now has a personal video experience that she can share with friends and family. Cleaver advertising techniques if you ask me.  

Overall, I would highly recommend attending this performance. Swearing and sexualized language is evident throughout, where some viewers may want to be mindful of this before attending. If you are a person who cannot get enough of interactive performances and are willing to risk having a sore belly from all the laughs, this performance is a must see! You have never experienced the story of Jekyll and Hydelike this ever before.