Review by Steve Bennett

I hated the first half of this show, but Rebecca Carrington eventually won me round, grudgingly.

The thread of the show is her (sometimes sexual) relationship with her cello, but she comes across as a talented musician and actress who has done a lot of homework on how to write and perform comedy but rather than a natural comic.

Juggling is a skill, anyone can learn it with enough practice, but comedy is an art: no one else can deliver Ross Noble or Bill Bailey's lines and be as funny.

Rebecca has the benefit of an elastic face and comic eyes, and a lot of diligent work has obviously been done in front of the mirror in rehearsals. But the clinical comedic effect was as cold as ice.

Her full audience tittered and laughed, aided by a man who laughed loudly and encouragingly at all the correct points.

There was a rather uncomfortable Indian musical sequence which came perilously close to laughing at the ethnicity, rather than with it, but eventually Rebecca won me round by sheer dogged determination and hard work.

The act will go down a storm in music schools and concert halls. Whether such an extended party piece could successfully play comedy clubs is more arguable.

On the other hand, several acts like Flanders and Swann made a very good living out of such comedy music and Rebecca may well have a future as a five-minute act on TV chat shows to publicise a theatrical career as a home-grown Victor Borge.

Review date: 1 Aug 2004
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett