This show does not live up to its name. Our writer-character Ade guides us skillfully through ups and downs in the precarious work of getting her play put on, revealing an inspiring resilience as she brushes herself down after every fall this process throws up: everyday racism, family pressures and a ‘we know best’ editing team. This day-in-the-life-style monologue makes extraordinary from the ordinary, and reveals Yolanda Mercy as an adept storyteller, clever mimic, and confident narrator. Well-paced anecdotes entertain as well as show up prejudices her black skin spurns – an expectation that she must be poor, for example. Still, Mercy may not yet have found her dramatic medium – I’d like to hear her on the radio. 

Summerhall, til 26 Aug.  
tw rating 3/5 | [Catherine Meek]