If you like your theatre to be emotionally intelligent, funny, and introspective, then one-woman show Meteors at Summerhall is a perfect Fringe choice.
Melissa Pullinger is our protagonist, a young woman who has gone out with some friends to watch a solar eclipse, followed by a meteor shower. However, her friends bail, and Melissa decides to head out into the night to watch the meteors herself. Once there, she starts to reflect on memories of her mother, and how her loss has come to shape her identity integrally and inescapably.
She then takes us through a non-linear narrative, largely focused on her mother’s final months and days, but also the experiences afterwards of being a young woman with a dead parent. The writing is sharp and astute. A particular anecdote about having to bring up her mother’s death on a first date will be relatable to anyone who has had to deal with the same problems of being defined by trauma.
Meteors shies away from obvious clichés and platitudes, and instead faces complex emotions head on and manages to be genuinely wise in the process. Like all the good “trauma shows”, it serves to be healing to the audience as well as the performer.
But it’s not just a trauma dump. Pullinger manages to consistently find the funny as well as the heartfelt in her anecdotes. An ongoing bit about lasagne is both hilarious and, in its way, emotionally cathartic. Pullinger themself is a talented and extremely effective performer. She captivates the audience for an hour with nothing else onstage but a single wooden chair. The little joke she does with it at the end is also charming and funny.
Meteors is a beautiful and funny show that had audience members laughing and weeping all in the same moment. Highly recommended.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
