Forget the “strong language and sexual references” tag on Fleabag.  

Honestly, it would be a pity if it made anyone think twice before seeing this brilliant one-actor play.

Created by English actor/playwright Phoebe Waller-Bridge, it’s been described as a “no holds-barred look at modern womanhood, from the perspective of a rude and somewhat unlikeable skint millennial” …

Sophie Hambleton plays out her character’s own-worst-enemy story in all its gory details, failures, heartaches and mistakes with a riveting charisma, moving around a remarkable set by Daniel Williams. [More] 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

First performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013, Fleabag was awarded an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and earned its author, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a number of other accolades. As I watch this performance, it is obvious why. But it isn’t just the writing.

Fleabag demonstrates the excellence in each of the staged aspects of a production coming together and knocking an eager audience onto its collective arse. Intelligently crafted, bitingly funny, Fleabag punches with heart, guts and soul.

The play reveals the inner and outer turmoil of one woman, struggling in the wake of her best-friend’s death. It’s a solo-performance, interweaving recorded voices without mishap or missing a beat. It needs to be. Anyone else on stage would only distract from Fleabag; the demanding experiential reality of her. 

Sophie Hambleton (2010 Chapman Tripp Actress of the Year) rocks this role. Her highly charged performance is both physically and emotively realised, delivered with honesty, humour and a touch of brutality. Flea is self-aware without coming across as self-conscious. She is vibrant, and wry, and sexy, all while capturing the goofy and grotesque truth of a person.

Author Waller-Bridgeonce said “playing bad people with a good heart is glorious”. Part of the beauty of the show is the humanity inherent in yearning for other people to be as bad as we feel. While the show isn’t very long (it runs at just about 70 minutes long without an interval), the story is rich and the humour can leave you paralysed with joy and wretchedness.

It’s in the twists though, surprising and raw, that Fleabag transforms from an entertaining series of anecdotes and bad behaviour to a poignant portrayal of an all-too-real member of modern society.  

The staging for all this has an attitude and personality all of its own.

Throughout, Glenn Ashworth’s lighting and Kane Parsons’soundscape blend almost seamlessly, with each other and the action, heightening the scenes and conveying distinct atmosphere. It can be easy to overlook the impact these have but the payoff is fantastic, and at moments haunting.  

Set and Costume Designer Daniel Williams captures Fleabag‘s apartment and café (guinea–pig–themed) while suggesting a London industrial club aesthetic. There are a number brilliant character-revealing details, as well as an intelligent use of levels and provision for varied and interesting avenues of movement around the stage. 

One detail particularly strikes me: a bottle of vodka done up like a pet’s water dispenser. This inclusion makes me consider other aspects of the set and suddenly casts Flea’s staging as her cage; her frantic drive and questing is akin to that of a guinea pig looking for meaning, trapped in the confines of her life, her choices, her mistakes. This resonates well. One of the messages that Fleabag conveys is the idea that ‘people are all we got’ – everything else is baggage and confines.

While Fleabag might be considered vulgar by some sensibilities, it is impossible to honestly deny its intelligence or the humanity of the characters and events. Directed by Heather O’Carroll, brilliantly staged and performed, you would be doing yourself a disservice to miss this bitingly clever play.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer