Exactly how fine was the “fine” relationship at the heart of Bella Hull’s show? She greets us with a fixed, manic smile on her face – the mask of her wonderfully honed stage persona, charming and determinedly upbeat on the surface, with something steelier glinting beneath.
That persona mirrors the show itself, its surface patterned with dreamlike detours and sparkling one-liners, the tendrils of darker truths rising at choice moments.
An ex is painted as someone with a rigid sense of how things should be. He valued rationality and normalcy; she embraced creativity and astrology. The show charts her realisation that this wasn’t a good match, that she was never truly accepted, and hints at the effects of having your sanity questioned by someone you loved.
There are surreal moments – her imagined life as one of the mice infesting her flat, her unorthodox solution to childbirth – and routines that take us from her childhood to the current disarray of her London life. One segment on the regularity with which she overhears her waifish flatmate having vigorous sex is particularly fun, her irreverent delivery bringing every line to life.
It’s this combination of sharp writing and precise performance that makes Hull’s show such a joy to watch. Jokes are piled on jokes, finding surprising angles on everything from personal trainers to plastic waste and Samuel Beckett. She paints a vivid picture of childhood years spent living with her grandma, a barefoot clairvoyant who introduced her to a “diabetic revenge horse”, while a poetic monologue is spun from a family holiday and sets up a memorable visual finale.
Hull proves revenge is a dish best served stuffed full of punchlines, with a side of the occult.
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At Monkey Barrel (The Hive), Edinburgh, until 24 August
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