Ellen Leslie
The last thing you’d expect to see in a play about OCD and grief is a woman putting on a Neil Diamond tribute act, yet this is exactly how Victoria Oxley starts her one-woman show Stayin Alive.
24 year-old Maggie has lived with her nan since she was nine years old, and is not coping with her recent death. With no support system other than a tentative relationship with her older sister, her mental health plummets, and she is forced to see a therapist. It is a tender and hilarious exploration of OCD and childhood trauma through a working class lens.
Between therapy sessions and monologues where she tells us about her past, Maggie visits her local pub The Blue Anchor to watch various tribute acts. These creatively named acts— Pelvis Presley and Cilla Crack, to name a few—are highly comedic, and Oxley performs them with ferocious energy. Her descriptions create a brilliantly clear picture of the pub and its regular customers.
The script is well-paced, although it’s a touch too long, becoming repetitive towards the end. While Oxley does a great job at distinguishing between the different characters for the vast majority of the play, it gets blurry towards the ending. There is a scene where she imagines what her mum would say to her, but there’s no indication that this is in her head, and not reality.
Discussions of OCD are honest and raw, inspired by Oxley’s own experiences of the illness. Maggie discusses her rituals and the thoughts behind them, as well as talking us through how her thoughts escalate and spiral when she is having a panic attack. She also describes how she felt shocked after her diagnosis, as she thought OCD was just about cleaning and organising, not intrusive thoughts and compulsive rituals.
Works like this that portray the reality of OCD for many people without being preachy are vital, and help to break down misconceptions that the illness solely hygiene-focused.
Maggie is abused by her mum, and it’s heartbreaking listening to everything that she endured, and seeing how this has impacted her as an adult. Her lack of self-worth never comes across as pitying, but instead, a true indication of how she feels after years of physical and emotional abuse. Despite her sharp tongue and hot temper, she is a highly loveable character, and we find ourselves rooting for her throughout the course of the show.
Stayin Alive is an energetic show, packed with quick humour, vulnerability, and plenty of tribute acts! It shows the harsh realities of dealing with mental health illnesses as a working class woman with no support network to fall back on. Oxley is an extremely talented and charismatic performer, and it is a joy to see Maggie grow over the course of the play.
Recommended drink: A cup of tea, served with a slice of birthday cake and a custard cream.
You can catch Stayin Alive at Blether at Gilded Balloon Patter House from 5-31 August at 15:40 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Roe McDonnell
Maia Kahn
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