An unassuming young woman, with a Glaswegian accent and a Hello Kitty top, launches into a high-energy stand-up-like routine as soon as lights go up at Parasocial Activity, at Gilded Balloon Patter House (The Penny). Jenny (played by Briony Martha, show creator) is intense, engaging, and a little socially anxious, but this seems like a normal start to a normal one-woman storytelling-style show.
That’s not at all what unfolds.
Jenny is a Scottish actress who, at the top of her narrative, has lived in London for six years pursuing the dream of becoming an actor. She admits she’s had little success and mainly stayed in a city that suffocates her because of her (now ex) boyfriend and (now ex) best friend. When she decides to surprise her mother for Mother’s Day by taking the train up to Glasgow, the family grabs coffee and brunch in a Costa and, miracle of miracles, Jenny’s favourite actor, James McAvoy, walks through the door. With some fateful pushing from her mother, Jenny walks up to her crush and, thinking quickly to avoid being too fangirlish, wishes McAvoy good luck onstage. He’s in Glasgow to perform in a play, but apparently also bought a house there recently. Jenny admits she cannot get tickets to the show and McAvoy, generous to a fan, gets her Instagram and manages to get Jenny (and her mother) tickets to the performance.
The Instagram messages continue, Jenny tells us. They build a relationship, perhaps romantic, or perhaps something more sinister.
With direction from Megan Brewer, this one-person show takes the kind of twist into darkness that so much of James McAvoy’s own roles do. We re-live awkward crushes and celebrity fantasies through the lens of a deeply unreliable narrator who is charmingly awkward and terrifyingly winsome. The modern internet gives us access to so many desires, it is such an easy way to grasp for what we want, and this show with the darkest comedy demonstrates the power and risk of this parasocial relationship.
Fringe festivals are hotspots for one-person shows and Parasocial Activity at Gilded Balloon Patter House (The Penny) is a locally made gem you must search out.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
