★ ★ ★ ★ ★
At first you’d be forgiven for thinking that this show’s title is ironic! Harriet Dyer’s the quintessential Cornish Comedian; half mania, half Victoria Wood. Her sprawling stand-up is endearing and complex. She jumps from topic to topic, taking in parasite teeming tuna cans, lightbulbs and paper rounds. You begin to wonder if her flights of fancy are intentional or not, but they must be, each detail is so deftly delivered.
Harriet wins her audience over quickly, which leaves them unprepared for what’s to come. Her hilarious paper round routine jackknifes into an unexpected story of child abuse, rape and trauma that hits you with whiplash like force. The juxtaposition between silly, wholesome jokes and a narrative of a child being brutalised seems impossible on paper, but Harriet makes it work. It is her authenticity that carries us through, something so rare in stand-up.
Yet Harriet never makes her audience feel uncomfortable, her energy and her jokes keep us (and her) safe. ’No one should tell you how to process your trauma’ she says, ‘If you want to make a joke about it, you should’.
We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of Harriet Dyer’s show. She has quietly reinvented the confessional stand-up, giving a voice back to those who have suffered abuse, entertaining and informing her audience, and, ultimately freeing herself.
Harriet Dyer: Trigger Warning Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Snug 16:20 (1hr) Aug 3-28 £11-10 16+
