Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Disarmingly frank, Olivia Levine confesses to a penchant for masturbating in public places within seconds of meeting us.  It sets the tone for a candid, sometimes naughty, hour of comedy primarily about her OCD – the real sort that means she needs irrational Ritual to counter worrying intrusive thoughts, not just needing the dishwasher stacked just so.

Unstuck is somewhere between theatrical monologue and stand-up – it’s clearly scripted as a one-woman show, but Levine is an engaging and natural performer, which knocks the edges off the rehearsed formality. 

In the past, she hasn’t wanted to share what was going on in her brain for fear of being thought crazy, but she’s clearly well over that stage now. 

And educating people’s always a noble aim… if Levine had more knowledge as a youth, maybe she wouldn’t believe the strange things she did about her vagina (here amusingly represented by a satsuma) or that she was capable of impregnating her mother. Such stories are inherently funny, and Levine gives us permission to laugh at how her neurodivergence led her to think such things.

It’s all part of the thorough insight she affords into how her OCD affects her, such as using recordings to recreate the effect of trying to ignore internal voices while conducting a normal conversation, or revealing how the condition makes her feel powerful, albeit in a destructive way as she believes she needs to act on a compulsion else something terrible will happen.

Another strand covers her sexuality, with her mother still apparently uncomfortable about the comic’s lesbianism. An amusing mime of her first time encountering a penis makes you think she’s made the right choice, while another anecdote tells of her doomed attempts to fix a relationship with a girlfriend who was clearly straight.  

Levine easily moves between serious honesty and frivolity, even if the two tonal elements remain separate to require such a manoeuvre. By opening up so candidly and with such good humour, she delivers an informative, entertaining show that shines a light on how difficult her life with OCD is, without her ever deploying a ‘poor me’ vulnerability for sympathy.

Review date: 24 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Just the Tonic at The Mash House