Review by Jason Stone

According to her posters, Mrs Bang is offering ‘a series of seductions in 55 minutes’ but her failure to deliver on this arousing promise shouldn't be held against her as she nonetheless produces a beguiling and intimate cabaret.

The show opens with Mrs Bang (Sheridan Harbridge) prevaricating as she waits for her band to arrive. Harbridge is a good enough actor for this to appear sincere and, in the best tradition of post-modernism, it takes a minute or two to realise that this delay and the attendant nervousness is part of the show. In fact, in some respects, it's all of the show.

Despite possessing the kind of physical attributes that can inspire men to murder one another, it emerges that Mrs Bang has been unlucky with love. She leads us through her back catalogue of failed affairs using both the spoken word and a series of beautifully performed songs. Her hopeful hesitancy at the show's opening is succeeded by a performance combining nervous bossiness and emotional vulnerability.

As the more astute reader may have divined by now, Mrs Bang's show is not a source of belly laughs but it doesn't feel as though that's the aim. Harbridge has a real gift for underplayed comedy but it's her singing that dominates this performance. The songs are delivered with power and passion and, provided you have a taste for cabaret, this is an immensely enjoyable show.

In particular, attention deserves to be drawn to a quite wonderful rendition of The Air That I Breathe which is so superior to the overblown version by The Hollies that Harbridge deserves an award for musical rehabilitation.

Most of the humour derives from Mrs Bang's interaction with the audience and, like any performance which mines this unreliable seam, its success depends on the luck of the draw. Tonight the particpants were neither the attention-grabbers whose heavy-handedness can prove destructive nor the petrified souls who transmit anxiety to the whole room but, despite this, the comedy that emerged from their participation didn't add up to a great deal.

Judged purely as comedy show, this is not one of the highlights of the Fringe but if you have an appetite for gentle comedy and an appreciation for wonderful singing in an intimate environment then this could be just your cup of Martini.

Review date: 12 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Jason Stone