Review

This is Sian Davies’s divorce show… kind of. It’s been seven years since the split – enough time to give her perspective and for the bitterness to dissipate. 

The solitary barbed comment about her ex in Band Of Gold is notable for its isolation, demonstrating a resolve not to air any dirty laundry, It makes Davies a better person, even if it comes at the expense of using justifiable animus to fuel edgy, tart comedy.

In fact, the break-up is sometimes only the loosest of frameworks for a collection of stories that take in tattoos, mental health, the absolute worst thing to call your partner, and the (possibly right-wing) dog she took custody of after the relationship crumbled.

The stand-up is an ever-engaging and waggish guide through the various stories, matey with the audience and with a commanding comic rhythm for every story. The heavier topics, especially on the relative being sectioned in a mental health unit, are handled with the lightest of touches, rather than laboured for emotional impact.

For Davies is just as likely to talk about serious issues as she is to drop into a pirate impression or a dad joke, the phrase which she uses to dismiss her punnier efforts, though they are better than that dismissive term.  

Her former partner coming from middle-class stock allows the comic to make some serious comments on social disparity, too, as you might expect from the founder of the Best in Class initiative to help fellow working-class comedians play the Edinburgh Fringe. But while leaving the audience in no doubt about her politics, she again saves the tub-thumping for off-stage. 

However, for all the entertaining individual routines and vivid imagery – plus one take-away fact about divorce law hasn’t kept up with marriage equality that you’ll always remember –  the hour doesn’t really have a sense of purpose or compelling larger narrative to pull the audience along. 

The most likely candidate comes from the odd painting that her ex-wife’s father made of the pair, a strong thread which has the strangest payoff – although the show actually ends on a clumsy and redundant video, ramming loads of callbacks together in lieu of a more organic conclusion.

Review date: 24 Feb 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: The Bill Murray