Being jilted at the alter may not immediately sound like a subject that would harvest a great deal of laughs. Yet Laura, written and performed by Elina Alminas, manages to make the whole affair cringe inducingly hilarious.
Laura appears on stage in a clear state of distress, make up smeared; leaving her looking a little like The Joker. She immediately seeks assistance from an audience member to unzip her wedding dress and it’s not long until we find out that fiancé Johnny hasn’t turned up.
Over the next hour the entire wedding takes place, without the groom, but with us as the guests. The cake is cut, the first dance had and the photographs taken…it’s like a car crash, you shouldn’t look but just can’t turn away. You begin by feeling sorry for her, then start to wonder why she’s been jilted (it’s the third time) and ultimately come full circle, pitying her again by the end.
Laura, who describes herself as a “Russian bride fail freak” incorporates an entire cast in to the solo performance, the would-be sister in law and Best Man featuring quite heavily. But Laura is angry and feels betrayed so she treats these characters with animosity, dropping truth bombs like confetti. There were gasps and hands slapped to mouths in the audience, who were all sat on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen next.
The drama rivalled the plot of any tea-time soap, but it was also one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. It gets a little darker in the final ten minutes, as a mixture of champagne, pills and chocolate cake takes its toll, the jilted bride is a broken woman.
Elina Alminas does a brilliant job of keeping up the momentum and completely embraces the distraught bride, going at it full pelt to ensure a compelling performance. It’s exhausting just watching her, the complete breakdown that happens in front of your eyes is done with sympathy but also laughter.
To simply read the script would not do the piece justice, because for Laura the brilliance is almost all in the delivery, and the skill with which Elina Alminas can adapt to audience reactions is one of the main reasons to see the show. This show is both brilliantly funny and devilishly brutal.
