‘A cleverly camp, witty and heartfelt piece of Fringe Theatre that’ll have you questioning your sexuality.’
‘Girlfriends: A Not So Straight Play’ comes to the Edinburgh Fringe from New York with director Ash Malloy and playwright/one-woman star of the show Sara Malinowski. Malinowski plays Scout, a loud, twenty-something Shakespeare enthusiast who proudly wears her heart on her sleeve and begins a solo road trip across the USA after one too many breakups with her childhood sweetheart. However, a fateful meeting with the alluring, rough-around-the-edges Oliska turns this solo trip into a girlfriends’ road trip, but whether these girlfriends are platonic or romantic comes into question through Scout’s journey of realising that she may not be as heterosexual as she thinks she is.
Malinowski’s one-woman storytelling is immersive from the get-go, enveloping the audience in her heartbreak through an emotional Celine Dion sing-along in the Starbucks drive-thru. It is here she meets Oliska, a badass chainsmoker who has a tattoo of a Hamlet quote on her thigh, immediately drawing Scout to her. After a long and deep chat in a diner, Oliska expresses that she wants to tag along, and Scout, lost and in need of some company, obliges happily.
Malinowski plays the two girls extremely well; Scout’s interactions with Oliska are filled with wit and humour, but also genuine and heartfelt chemistry. She also serves up multiple other characters that enhance the story, including sleazy guys in every state they visit and a charismatic jazz singer that oozes sensuality. Additionally, this performance showcases Malinowski’s singing talents through acapella moments in-character, and while this may seem bold or cringe-invoking, she sings so effortlessly and commits to whatever she is doing so that it never once felt awkward. That says a lot too, as there was only a small audience in this performance, yet she was unafraid to make direct eye contact and connect with her audience, invoking a lot of laughter throughout.
The storytelling in this play regarding its queerness also is well-done in the sense it feels very subtle, being shown rather than told, which makes for a very realistic approach to Scout’s questioning of her sexuality. Regarding sexuality in general, the sex jokes in this performance are so clever and genuinely funny; a climax is literally turned into a singing performance, and the audience was all for it.
This show is a fantastic promotion of Fringe Theatre, and if you’re looking for a camp, witty, yet heartfelt old time accompanied by the likes of Norah Jones, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, ‘Girlfriends: A Not So Straight Play’ is definitely worth seeing.
The show is running from the 7th-15th August, and then back from the 17th– 29th August at the Jade Studio, located within the Greenside @ George Street venue in Edinburgh
For details on this performance, here is the show listing! https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/girlfriends