Jessica Barton's clown show 'Dirty Work' presents her as Mary Floppins, guiding the audience, particularly men, in organization while facing her own issues. Barton involves audience members in comedic activities like folding sheets and separating laundry, enhancing her charms while keeping volunteers in check. A subtle narrative hints at a connection between her obsession with tidiness and past relationship distress. Although some ideas appear stretched thin over the hour, Barton's performance remains engaging, showcasing her talent through song and participatory routines.
Dirty Work finds Barton in bonneted and buttoned-down guise as Mary Floppins, here to tutor us in tidiness and sweep away her own demons to boot.
This is one of those shows that derives its comic charge from putting members of the public through their paces on stage.
At such moments, it can feel like the show's ideas have been stretched fairly thinly to fill this fringe hour.
Barton has that charm in spades, and a fine disciplinarian line too, that can keep an errant volunteer in line with just a peremptory flash of the eyes.
Collection
[
|
...
]