“Every time I come to Brighton,” starts Sarah Kendall, “I buy something random that I don’t need. Like a dreamcatcher. Or a poncho. I reckon you just fill up your houses until you have enough to open your own shop. Vintage postcards for £10 a pop anyone?” As a typical Brightonian, this was nice opening nod to the city from Australian comic Sarah Kendall at the start of her show, A Day in October at the Komedia in Brighton.
This was a classic stand up opener, but is also pretty much where the classic stand-up finished, as Kendall, really, is a storyteller. And this took me rather by surprise.
Transported back to her teenage years growing up in the rough as houses town of Newcastle, Australia, we hear about the perils of being a redhead (“if you lose a redhead, check the shade – we are all there”) how the Italians looked far better than the Australians when they smoked and the complicated web of clashes between who hated who at school. But everyone it seemed, hated George Peach.
Regardless of where we all grew up, everyone would have known a George Peach – that one kid that copped the lot from everyone. But having honed her skills at being “completely invisible and pointless” the teenage Sarah strikes up a secret friendship with George, whilst openly covering her back from the circling hordes of adolescents who “can sniff out weakness like a shark sniffs out a menstruating seal.”
With smatterings of comic observations and recollections throughout, from inappropriate sex dreams to the job of a gherkin collector at McDonald’s, we are drawn deeply into the tense relationship of Sarah and George which, like many classic teen movies, peaks whilst at a school camping trip.
The scene is set and everyone hangs on Kendall’s every word, waiting for tragedy to unfold… It is very rare that I have seen such an engaged audience and such utter silences at a gig. Usually, silence is the one thing you dread as a comic, but in the case of A Day in October, these spells of deep quiet and stillness are exactly what Sarah deliberately led us to, repeatedly pulling us to the brink and back again. George and Sarah are the unexpected heroes in this magical story which is relatable, heartfelt and beautifully timed.
If you are looking for a show that makes you wipe the streaming tears from your shaking cheeks, then this is not the one for you, but you will wipe a tear. I can almost guarantee it.
