Rachel Parris’ manic musical clown is a brilliant comic conceit; below the gleaming eyes and forced exuberance lies a thinly veiled aggression. It’s released in short, pressurised bursts, unleashing fierce, acerbic barbs before quickly reapplying the mask. Physically shaking sometimes holding it back, the tension between the cracking music hall grin and her underlying cynicism is tangible. Echoing the plight of a generation staring apprehensively towards 30 (a kind of living death) and back, at a decade of compromise between ideals and economy, she seems about to snap. A skilled composer, she embodies singers and musical styles with an impressive physicality and vocal dexterity, using her own cracking mask to state bluntly the subtext of cultural atrocities from Disney to The X Factor.

Laughing Horse @ The Counting house, until Aug 25, 4.00pm.
tw rating 4/5 | [Joe Abel]