The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Camden Fringe 2019: Oddball at the Gatehouse

Camden Fringe 2019: Oddball at the Gatehouse | Theatre review
21 August 2019
Regan Harle
Avatar
Regan Harle
21 August 2019

An “Oddball” is defined as a strange or eccentric person, certainly not a term regularly used to describe someone suffering from a mental illness. The word gives off comedic connotations, not bleakness, which is exactly what this play is. Forget the skinny, upper-class, white, blonde girls. It’s up to one woman (Francesca Forristal) to challenge hundreds of people’s perceptions of eating disorders in a mere 60 minutes. She wastes no time. Each minute is relevant, from a heated argument with a Fitbit to a brief song that shows the performer can actually sing.

Forristal achieves her goal in “trying to find a dramatic way of depicting eating disorder mentalities that doesn’t romanticise and doesn’t feel cliché”. The only cliché element is the dates that the titular character, Oddball, has to endure, and we are reminded by the soundwork of Jordan Clarke that they really did happen. This is relatable to everyone – proved by the nodding heads in the audience. As if dating isn’t hard enough for millennials without the added eating disorder, the protagonist tells horrific stories of a guy that wants to sleep with her feelings, accompanied by a strangely catchy song, a girl obsessed with astrology, and a date that never wants to break eye contact. She responds by not just breaking, but completely shattering the fourth wall, even going as far as spitting and murdering her Fitbit in someone’s pint.

The show is a raw and honest one-woman comedy that does not shy away from harshness. Jokes are made about anorexics entering a sandwich shop and there’s even a surprisingly smooth rap about bulimia. Forristal shares everything with us, but what about her dates? The real question is how much is too much to share with someone that you don’t want to scare off. Oddball ponders this as she gets ready to meet Emily at a horror house, or her definition of a horror house – a restaurant. She is stripped bare, literally. There is no set, and not even a solo prop to help her along the way. There are only lights and the occasional sound effect, yet the majority of the sound effects come from the performer’s own mouth, including the applying of deodorant.

It’s easy to see why Forristal wanted to perform completely alone, under Micha Mirto’s direction, as this really is her own, real experience with an eating disorder. Oddball is a conversation, not a play, that gives its audience a real look into the mind of an anorexia sufferer. A must-see.

★★★★★

Regan Harle

Oddball is at the Gatehouse from 20th until 24th August 2019. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

For further information about Camden Fringe 2019 visit the festival website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Theatre

Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Evelyn at Southwark Playhouse

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World at Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

This Is Not Who I Am/Rapture at the Royal Court Theatre

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

“Flamenco is a race where there is no end – you never stop learning”: An interview with Manuel Liñán on ¡Viva! at the Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival 2022

Jessica Wall
Read More

Jitney at the Old Vic

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

“The fact a play as relevant as Jitney is not known outside of the US is criminal”: An interview with Sule Rimi on starring in August Wilson’s Jitney at the Old Vic

Jonathan Marshall
Read More

The Car Man at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Regan Harle

Oddball

★★★★★

Dates

20th August - 24th August 2019

Price

£10-£12

Links & directions

TwitterFacebookWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “We really wanted to create a cabbage gun”: An interview with David Earl and Chris Hayward stars of Brian and Charles
    Cinema & Tv
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wayfinder
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Pilot | Theatre review
Camden Fringe 2019: Death Suits You at Theatro Technis | Theatre review