Lucy Porter treats the audience to her 11th Edinburgh Show with a personal look at how she deals with conflict. She explains her avoidance of conflict with numerous amusing anecdotes; but she is so confident in her delivery, that one cannot imagine being her afraid to argue her case!
She refers to her parenting skills or lack of them as “benign neglect”; that is until she discovers a manual outlining the simple, direct approach. This does not work, however, on her ever-tolerant husband, Jeremy, who simply changes the subject if an altercation arises.
Her warm, humorous approach draws the audience in and makes them identify with her everyday life from well-meaning school mums to those choosing the deliberate backhanded compliments.
Lucy admits to her lower middle class upbringing in Croydon (much derided) and goes on to say how she has now become one of the Remain-voting Liberal elite; however politics is not a topic for this more personal show.She moves seamlessly onto dealing with social media conflict and engages the audience in a simple challenge. How would they deal with online abuse?Lucy draws on her poignant relationship with her mother as she realises that it is from her that she has developed something of a passive aggressive approach to conflict. The death of her parents is dealt with sympathetically and with humour.
This is an altogether polished and professional performance; but also great fun.★★★★
