‘Real, existential and funny’
Last at the Fringe 7 years ago, Hannah Gadsby is back with their new show ‘Woof!’ which aims to ask all the big questions. Gadsby continues to hold the space between comedy and tough truths with a self-awareness that is highly relatable and on numerous occasions had the audience burst into applause in agreement.
They touch on big topics such as mental health struggles, death, grief and anxiety describing this show as having a more chatty, jittery and anxious energy, very different from the deep intensity of Nanette. They ask big questions, little questions and everything in between, my personal favourite being, ‘what happened to all the cabbage patch dolls?’
They share that Woof wasn’t the original plan for Hannah’s show, that the show was going to focus solely on grief but following a last-minute panic attack, they threw that show away to create space for this new one. Perhaps that show is for another time they joke, a ‘buy one get one free.’
Instead, Woof focuses on the anxiety of the modern age. There is so much to be anxious about, the climate crisis, the news, social media, the fact that we have started making plants out of plastic. Hannah really hammers this point until it hits home, why remove the oxygen from the plants?
In fact, Hannah addresses plastic pollution throughout. Are there thousands of cabbage patch dolls hidden in landfill? Are we supposed to be calm about the fact that all of us have components of plastic inside us?
But perhaps, most interesting about this show is the way Gadsby addresses their newfound fame and discusses the fear of not being able to stay grounded. They have grown in confidence and are not afraid to share it but with success they are beginning to adapt and perhaps not in ways that they like.
They speak of their journey ‘from Ken Loach to just Ken’ and chat about how they don’t feel they fit into their newfound lifestyle. They speak of going from being frozen to their bones in bed one winter to now being unable to sleep without two mattress toppers. They create space for us to question, what might we be like in that same situation?
Although some things never change. Continuously stubborn, Hannah shares that when people said glasses were a key character component, they got laser eye surgery. They pull their glasses off their face to prove it. Gadsby doesn’t like the restrictive labels placed on them by others and that is why their fanbase loves them.