Tom Clayton
This show based on a true story about her relationship with a multi-felon and how she kept herself stuck with him for so long, has strong story telling and is punctuated by jokes throughout.
Laurie opens the show with a recounting of waiting in line on Christmas Day in 2014 at the prison where her boyfriend was being held. It’s intense and there’s a lot going on, with just herself on stage she fills the area with her performance and control of the situation. Right as a Santa is being beaten up she cuts away, breaking the 4th wall and addresses the audience for the first time. The show then pivots into a monologue of how she got into that position.
She says she wants a bad boy, but ends up with a bad person and at the time she clearly is still struggling to tell the difference. He gives her attention she craves and with her being a self-professed love addict this is all that she is after. This need for attention comes from the way she was brought up and treated when she was younger. Taking us through how her mother struggled to tell her she loved her and then entering into a different terrible relationship as a child. This meant that her idea of a relationship was skewed and she just wanted someone to tell her they wanted to be with her. Something I’m sure a lot of people have also likely experienced at some point.
Building this world of how Laurie ended up in a place where she was craving attention from anyone, makes you emphasise with her and that this was an unfortunate incident where she met the wrong person at the wrong time. It highlights a pressing issue in some relationships how people will stay in a relationship and ignore all of the warning signs regardless of what they are because they get that attention and feel wanted. Learning to grow and be more herself has seen allowed to build a better and stronger relationship.
Laurie is able to make the show as funny as it is because she can look back on the events and understand and recognise what was so wrong and she clearly sees it as funny now looking back that she was so blind during the relationship. Being able to have that retrospective and ability to laugh at herself means you can feel comfortable in laughing at the situation because you aren’t laughing at her you’re laughing with her.
Clever, witty and at times incredibly sad. An hour of great storytelling and solo performance.
Recommended Drink: Tequila, you may look back and regret your decisions but seems the right thing at the time.
Catch Do You Accept These Charges? between 10th and 24th, not 12th or 18th at 15:10. It is on at Below at Pleasance Courtyard. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Jake Mace
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
