Lamesha Ruddock
“ChatGPT could never take my night job.”
FISH is an utterly captivating journey into the absurdities and anxieties of modern life. Funmi Adejobi builds an entirely convincing world where she is undeniably a fish, navigating the struggles of learning to walk, talk, and finding a reason to live. FISH works with the audience to explore the messiness of being alive in a world on edge.
Funmi Adejobi, alongside co-devisor and director Chris Manley, uses this whimsical framework to interrogate personal and global anxieties with charm and control. Funmi worries about never achieving an EGOT, planes and whistleblowers, big proteins, sequels, water wars, and genocide in Gaza. Yet through her performance, she shows how daring to even imagine can carve space to build resilient people and fish.
The narrative follows Funmi as Fish, quite literally a fish out of water, thrown into the unpredictable real world. As she learns to navigate human existence, she must confront her crippling worries and deep desires. From playful gags with hoops and bubble-blowing glasses to catching fish food with her mouth, the audience are invited to play in FISH.
Enter Funmi the Fish, blue-faced in a scaly suit, and immediately the audience are hooked. Funmi delivers a masterclass in clowning, curtailing the audience into obedience with mere smirks and head raises. Her strip tease, revealing a brown bodysuit stuffed with clothes symbolic of her anxieties and baggage, is a brilliant visual metaphor. The show’s subtle “hands up don’t shoot” imagery, where Funmi is sprayed by a water bottle, cleverly demonstrates her ability to reinvent scenes with just gesture changes. Even when audience interaction grows, it never teeters out of her effortless authority. Moments of communal breath, exchanged through mere eye contact, show her finesse over both physicality and emotional resonance. Funmi is devilishly hilarious in melodrama, beckoning the audience to help as she falls, delivering smirks reminiscent of a classic turn-to-camera moment.
Her physical comedy peaks as she learns to walk, bursting into a moonwalk and the classic fake stairs gag. A standout moment is her curation of audience debate on pescetarianism, embodying multiple debaters and turning their words into her own. As she finds her voice, Funmi moves seamlessly from Shakespeare to Presidents to pop culture references like “Nothing Beats a Jet 2 Holiday,” Nicole Kidman’s AMC commercial, and even Wicked. The audience, wielding light beams to give Funmi a reason to live, become co-creators of the performance’s emotional heartbeat. These moments prompt reflection on ancestors, communal responsibility, and the significance of cultivating joy in difficult times.
Funmi Adejobi commands the stage with infectious charisma, transforming everyday worries into shared theatrical magic. FISH creates a transformative experience for audiences who recognise the absurdity and beauty of being alive.
You can catch FISH until Saturday 23rd at Jade Studio at Greenside @ George Street from 19:35 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Image Credit: Noah Eberhart
Jasmine Silk
Phoebe Bakker
