Weather Girl

Ed Fringe 24

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Ed Fringe 24 -

Stacey is serving the people of California with positivity, a big smile, and that typically annoying West Coast twang. Stacey reckons she was always destined to be a weather girl, beaming her way through her job as she lets the Californian’s know about more and more extreme heat with nothing but positive spin! No need to evacuate due to the wild-fires, it’s only a mild 104 out there today! 

Brian Watkins has written a bitingly funny play, tackling America’s (or the West’s in general) unwillingness to comprehend the climate crisis. As Stacey reels off all the fast food joints in the area and counts her date’s five or six sports cars, there’s a clear condemnation of the association between a late-capitalist obsession with unending consumerism and the end of the world as we know it. 

It’s not preachy though, the show is surreal, fast-paced and, as can be expected from a Francesca Moody production, incredibly slick. This is in no small part due to the incredible performance of real-life Californian Julia McDermott, who brings the turmoil simmering underneath Stacey’s stereotypical, Cali-girl exterior to a rolling boil; sipping prosecco just to get through the day, Stacey holds everyone she works with and everything her job stands for in utter contempt. It is genuinely hard to take your eyes off McDermott for even a second, as her date takes a manic turn, her karaoke song implodes, her job unravels; it really is a masterclass of a one-woman play. 

And clearly fringe-goers agree…the show has sold out its entire run. You might be able to snag a return but if not, I’m sure we’ll be seeing this show again very soon.

FOUR STARS

Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic