Therapy seems to be the defining theme of this year’s Edinburgh festival. Many performers are saddled with personal demons or anxieties which they want to alleviate by yelling about them in front of a paying audience. Professor Tanya Byron puts it like this in the Pleasance brochure: ‘Therapy is where art and story-telling combine.’
This show crashes and burns like the stock market on a bad day. A cheerier ending might help.
At the Pleasance, Joe Sellman-Leava is seeking catharsis through his show It’s The Economy, Stupid! (Jack Dome, until 26 August). He begins by delivering a friendly lecture about credit, interest rates, retail banks, Adam Smith and so on. After 40 minutes, he loses his cool and starts to rant and swear at the crowd about his personal lack of funds. Overwhelmed by financial distress he collapses on the floor in a quivering heap. When he gets back to his feet he explains that despite working for 17 hours a day, he’s stuck in a leaky, rat-infested flat.
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