If You Let Me Speak welcomed a relatively small audience on the night of my review. A late-night one-woman theatre show in the New Town is possibly going to have some difficulty attracting punters. And this is a real shame, because the play is definitely worth seeing.
The narrative centres around Nehmila, a performer from Spain who moved to London to find fame and fortune. Over the hour, she makes several attempts at a burlesque routine to Dorothy Fields’ Hey Big Spender, but every attempt ends with something going comically wrong. Meanwhile, on each side of the stage, the spectres of Death and Libido loom, interrupting her monologue with intrusive thoughts of mortality and sex. Finally, her hypochondriac mother in Spain insists on calling her multiple times during the performance.
The themes of If You Let Me Speak are rarely explored, particularly in relation to older women. Our protagonist discusses the menopause, the indifference of doctors to the debilitating effects on her body, and the impending worry that her time is almost up. Sometimes she stops mid-sentence to respond to something said to her by Death or by Libido, eventually snapping in frustration: “Let me speak”. It’s a really unique way of exploring women’s anxiety, often justified, about losing relevance as we age, and having our opinions and experiences overlooked and silenced.
The performance is a little confusing. It takes a while to become clear exactly who Nehmila is talking to when addressing Death and Libido. Nehmila herself is very engaging, and delightful company for the hour. At times during the performance, however, she did seem unsure of herself. However, it’s very possible that this is part of the character, especially in light of the ending, which I won’t spoil, but which brings together all the different, seemingly disparate aspects of the script into one beautiful moment. It’s hard to see the ending of If You Let Me Speak and not believe that every pause or unsure moment was planned. I wonder if that could be made clearer during the journey.
If You Let Me Speak is a really interesting, unique and heartfelt performance that deserves a bigger audience. It needs a little bit of tightening up, and some clarity on what it’s really trying to say. But it is definitely worth including in your Fringe timetable.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
