High level ups and downs

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) JJJ This is a gentle meander down a lane that leads through memories of Michael’s career. He had a sectarian Irish upbringing, got fired from his job with the Irish Tourist Board for telling American tourists some ridiculous tales of where leprechauns go and left Ireland for the bright lights of London having written one joke. It was a great joke. But it was only one. His second was written on the train from Holyhead to London. And together they started his 30-year comedy career.

The word laconic springs to mind, but it makes Redmond sound too much the livewire. But it all adds to the lovely measured style of a man whose deadpan one-liners are like little pebbles of funny dropped into the calm pool of his hour.

Joe Pasquale and his son come in for some gentle but pointed stick and Redmond turns out to be an astute art critic. A very zen hour of lovely craic, with enough relaxed pauses in it to make a concurrent open mike night onstage a genuine possibility. KATE COPSTICK

0 Emotional highs and lows are centre stage in Jon Brittain’s play about how depression can strike Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33) JJJJ Just when it looked like Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing had cornered the market for feelgood comedies about depression, along comes this delicious show written by Jon Brittain for Silent Uproar that suggests the 2014 hit has kicked off a whole sub-genre.

If those that follow are as good as A Super Happy Story timed daily morning routine and the consideration for others this involves. This is implicitly contrasted with the attitude of anyone who rents out sub-standard accommodation to young people for more than it’s worth. When a woman on a voicemail gushes about the “wonderful space” she inhabits at the end, it’s a reminder that everyone deserves somewhere nice, and affordable, to live. SALLY STOTT (About Feeling Super Sad), there will be no cause for complaint.

Knowing how averse we are to negative emotions, director Alex Mitchell goes out of his way to make things cheery. Even before we’re in our seats, the superb Madeleine Macmahon is charming us with her upbeat patter – praising someone’s shoes here, admiring someone’s hair there, congratulating a row simply for filling up. She has the relentless good humour of a quiz show host and a sharp-thinking wit to match. a place where her voice can be heard, where an ordinary person can become a superhero. When her blog (wondrwomanuk) goes viral, she feels empowered. But when her daughter is abducted, she must crack into action which is more than just virtual.

Poppy Burton-morgan’s pacy verse monologue, one of two new plays by Metta Theatre exploring our relationships with the digital world, is beautifully performed by Simone James. Insightful observations come thick and fast: personal posts have more impact than political ones; Faith’s 11-year-old daughter wants a less digital life than her mother has.

But then the action takes a twist too far. One minute Faith is running through

She is the life and soul of the party, but for all the laughter and merriment, it’s a party we know is going to crash. We’ve all seen the name of the play. And what A Super Happy Story captures quite brilliantly is the way depression strikes regardless of how happy the circumstances, how perfect the moment, how well things are going.

Telling the first-person story of the teenage Sally, faking her ID to get into a gig and having the time of her life with her best friends, Macmahon takes us from the heady heights of euphoria to the headquarters of shadowy corporation Media UK dressed as a cleaner, about to save her daughter. The next, her phone is not her own, and she’s being told her avatar was someone else’s invention. The writing falters, and the character we’ve grown to like seems no longer sure she even exists. While based on a strong idea, Wondr is in danger of being too clever, and leaving its audience behind. SUSAN MANSFIELD Natural Food Kafe (Venue 415) JJ

In the historical aspects of the inexplicable depths of an illness that goes beyond mere cause and effect.

Lest any of this get too maudlin, there’s an excellent set of cabaret songs by Matthew Floyd Jones of Frisky and Mannish fame, punchily performed by Macmahon with co-stars Sophie Clay and Ed Yelland. Yet for all the frivolity, Brittain’s play never shies away from the seriousness of its subject matter, pulling the rug from under its own fairy-tale ending to create a drama of rich extremes. MARK FISHER this short work-in-progress piece by Steve Mclean, there’s an interesting summary of the genesis of and fall-out from Richard Nixon’s presidency of the United States, as well as an interesting theory that Nixon’s time in office was the most well-intentioned of all presidents since, thwarted only by his bending the rules to remain in a position where he could make a difference.

That theory comes from Richard Nixon himself, preparing to justify his existence in the afterlife, and the decision by Mclean to personify his subject rather than give more distance to his history is where the flaws emerge. DAVID POLLOCK A compelling solo turn from Rosa Torr ensures this show about a young woman’s deliberations about an unplanned pregnancy hold your attention. Torr plays Lily who’s 23 but seems young for her age; single, still living at home and carefree – until she hits a bump.

As she sits in a hospital waiting room, Lily’s mind wanders back over the events that brought her here and Torr sketches Lily’s mates and her mum with a deft, lightly humorous, touch which makes this relatable. Co-devised with director Rosa Bowden, the narrative skips back and forth in time, which feels authentic and varies the tone. Each time Lily returns to the present the house lights turn up so the audience is as brightly lit as the performer. It’s a smart touch that mimics the sterile lighting of hospitals and increases the intimacy of the piece. It’s perhaps unusual to see such a focused issue-driven play these days but abortion is still a divisive issue in Ireland, where it’s illegal (12 women a day travel from Ireland to the UK for abortions).

The Irish company BUMP&GRIND Theatre have created this in support of the campaign to make it legal. Lily lives in the UK and faces no legal consequences – but it’s still not a decision taken lightly. RORY FORD Laughing Horse @ The Cuckoo’s Nest (Venue 106) JJ The sheer weight of whimsical wordplay eventually prove deadening to this private in-joke of a show. British novelist Steve Attridge essays his own creation, Dick Spacey, a down-at-heel gumshoe more interested in punplay than gunplay. Attridge is a decent enough performer – his American accent is convincing – and the occasional line elicits a laugh but there’s no plot and an hour is a very long time to spend with someone who is merely amusing themselves. RORY FORD