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Camden Fringe Review: Note to Self by Theatreweb at Camden People's Theatre, London

Anyone who has read my reviews for a while will know that I always try to take the best of things from shows more than the worst, I realise that for every show I see, no one sets out to make a bad one, that would just be insane. So Note To Self leaves me therefore in a bit of a quandary as while there were many people lapping it up during the performance, guffawing at every opportunity, it was to be totally honest not very good.

I think it has the feel of being a woman's play, therefore, I suppose I might not be its target audience, however, there was a chance of making this an effective little piece describing as it attempts to the life of a webcam girl balancing work and her normal life. Unfolding rather bizarrely in the room of her sleeping boyfriend (we are encouraged by performer Hanna Winter to be silent on our entry), who is actually either dead in reality or more likely rolled-up sheets as he never plays any part. The charade of our silence it pretty pointless as well as once the show begins, the need for calm is quickly dispersed.

Winter has a likeable delivery and relationship with the audience and manages to form a coherent repartee at times, but the strength is never there to make this lightweight material flow. Taking a mix of puerile sexual humour coupled with some holier than thou dialogue, it really is insubstantial stuff, serving little in the way of making the female point of view and if anything weakening the argument with the casualness it employs.

It wasn't without its moments though, the ice cream scene was mostly entertaining, but even that highlighted that really despite its occasional thoughts of being a grand moral piece, it really never was going to be as clever as it clearly wanted to be.

So, many of the audience loved it, however, I think mostly for the flimsy reasons that almost anyone will laugh at rude sexual jokes or a fart joke for instance to a certain extent, that doesn't make something good though to pretty much rely on them. However I hoped for a little better from this piece, and sadly I left thinking Note To Self had let pretty much everyone down as a missed opportunity to make a valid and very much needed point for all the ladies out there.

⋆⋆

Performance reviewed: Wednesday 9th August at Camden People's Theatre, London

Note To Self was performed during the Camden Fringe at Camden People's Theatre between Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th August, 2017.
For further details visit https://www.theatreweb.org/

Details about the Camden Fringe which runs until Sunday 27th August can be found at http://camdenfringe.com/

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