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ED2023 Reviews ED2023 Theatre Reviews
Unforgettable Girl (Elisabeth Gunawan, Created A Monster and The Pleasance)
By Andy Leask | Published on Tuesday 15 August 2023
This is certainly unforgettable, though not entirely for the right reasons. The core concept – using a Thai mail order bride as a character to prick the bubble of white privilege and explore problematic attitudes towards women of colour – is sound, and there are some excellent moments. But overall, the execution undermines the message. There’s not a clear plot running through it, making the whole thing fragmented, and the tone shifts so quickly you get whiplash. While it neatly skewers the typical middle-class Fringe audience, the conflation of class and colour is troubling, and suggests exactly the kind of unconscious bias it sets out to challenge. What’s worse, it falls afoul of my own deepest bias, against enforced, cringe-inducing audience participation.
Pleasance Courtyard, until 28 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Andy Leask]
