ED2016 2/5 Reviews ED2016 Theatre Reviews

Dolly Wants To Die (Lung)

By Francesca Peschier | Published on Monday 22 August 2016

In a dystopian nursery, Dolly and her pal Mr. Bear are depressed. Their original, now adult, owner’s life has gone to crap, seeing her return to her childhood home, and the toys’ new playmate is an idiot eight-year-old obsessed with zumba. In a world of zero hour contracts, drugs and recession, only Justin Bieber is worth living for, and even his latest album is growing stale. Helen Monks is manic as the suicidal Dolly, trying to enlist the audience, armed with water pistols and brute force, to assist her in hastening her untimely demise. Monks achieves a very watchable frenzy in her energetic performance but the darkness here feels forced and Dolly’s depression, treated as playtime, edges towards grotesque rather than funny.

Underbelly Cowgate, until 28 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Francesca Peschier]