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Joanna Neary’s Little Moments (And The Expansion of Rosalind)
- Etcetera Theatre, Camden, London
- 4 March 2007
Mouth-watering moments from little Jo Neary make an enraptured audience hungry for more
There’s something wonderfully shambolic about Joanna Neary’s new show. Clothes and props are tossed around the tiny stage as she leaps from one strange character to the next. Neary is something of a one-woman variety show, wearing characters like costumes, and has been favourably compared to Joyce Grenfell, Alan Bennett and The Fast Show. While there are elements of all three here, Little Moments... is quite unique; her characters exude pathos and a stuttering absurdity.
Witness her wincingly upper-class Celia, a character who falls in love with rag and bone man Tomdickharry during a search for a lost crossword. She inspires pity and laughter in equal measure; wonderful. Next, she's a suitably twitchy woman giving a talk on sex toys, with the aid of her sketch book, as pleasurably excruciating pauses, pitiful exhortations and the whiff of desperation fill the tiny room. Finally, Neary unveils a startling singing voice, jazz-riffing about kids on a school trip in the 'Dirty Lyric Nursery Rhymes'.
Her little moments – snapshots of her schooldays and excerpts from her
childhood diary – add a touch of whimsy to the proceedings and gently draw
you further into Neary’s ramshackle world. Somewhere that, when the lights
go up, you’re reluctant to leave.
Aaron Davies
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