The Fringe exhibits hundreds of one-woman shows every year, and every year there are some shows that push the expectations of what one person can do on a stage on their own. Do This One Thing For Me is one of these shows. Jane Elias delivers an excellent performance in this 1 hour 15 minute show, keeping audiences not only engaged but awestruck. She seamlessly switches from character to character, and the way she creates these characters through her body language and accent is incredible. Her skill is what really brings this story to life.
Do This One Thing For Me follows the relationship between Elias and her father, a Greek Holocaust survivor. She tells of how she navigates dating and her father’s expectations of her life and future partner. She also explores how descendants of Holocaust survivors navigate remembering those in their family that didn’t survive, or how to talk about it with those that did.
With a very minimal set design and very few lighting changes, Elias manages to do wonders with so little. She uses music towards the end of the piece very effectively, making for a very emotional ending, and one that calls us back to the promotional posters for the show. Her performance exudes a love and adoration for her father that is heartwarming and moving to see.
The honesty behind the storytelling, demonstrating the ups and downs of a father-daughter relationship, is what makes this piece so genuine and enjoyable. The switches back to her father’s stories of his experience during the Holocaust were timed perfectly. Elias manages to share her father’s awful experiences but also not weigh her performance down.
She perfectly displays the range of human emotion, fading into and out of heavy and emotionally charged monologues into regular conversations.
Do This One Thing For Me is a remarkably genuine, important, and impressive piece of theatre.
