Look who’s stalking
In PURSUET
thespace on North Bridge (Venue 36) thespace @ Niddry Street (Venue 9)
We all have celebrities we idolise, perhaps even fantasise about. In Eleanor Higgins’s solo performance, an unnamed woman tells the story of how admiration can become an obsession. Convinced that becoming Sue Perkins’s girlfriend is the answer to all her problems, she strives to be as close to her as possible as often as possible. What audiences may not be expecting is that this is not, in fact, a play about Sue Perkins. It is a play about alcoholism.
Taking place in a therapist’s office, Higgins rambles about how the world has gone crazy; Trump, Boris Johnson, Brexit, and Pokemon Go (to throw in a fun one). It’s a tired diatribe that audiences have heard over and over since 2016.
From here we learn obscure details about Sue’s life, and ruinous ones about her own, each more concerning than the last.
Here the show finds its stride. It acts as both a comedy of awkward encounters and crashing celebrity parties, and a painful drama about addiction, and finds a tragicomic balance between the two.
The monologue is made all the more upsetting by Higgins’s portrayal of denial. As with anyone who hides their personal struggles behind
Higgins’s play is about addiction as much as obsessive fandom
humour, slight gestures and subtle facial expressions let us know that everything is far worse for her than she is letting on.
Her performance brings the script to life, creating a figure with whom we can sympathise, as opposed to the usual
crazed stalker stereotype. Her vivid storytelling gives her a sense of humanity. Even as she unravels, we still get a sense of character and personality underneath the coping mechanisms.