Claudia O'Doherty: What Is Soil Erosion?

Article by Bernard O'Leary | 10 Aug 2011

Let's get this straight, you will learn nothing about soil erosion over this hour. Nothing. Claudia O'Doherty mentions it occasionally, but it's all buried under a barrage of brilliant nonsense.

What Is Soil Erosion? is a TV series written by O'Doherty. Intended for broadcast once per lunar cycle, she had imagined it running for at least five years, but sadly it failed to see the light of day thanks to narrow-minded Australian TV executives. So now we see it condensed into a single hour, manically presented on stage in an hour as O'Doherty rushes through each episode, even fitting in a Halloween episode and a special look behind the scenes.

It's a briskly paced hour and highly amusing hour. Comparisons could be made to the iconic Look Around You series and they wouldn't be too far off, but really this show is all about about O'Doherty's energy. A captivating, manic surrealist, she flings ideas at the audience without pausing for breath and manages to hit the mark almost every time.

It's a shambolic, mental triumph and Australian TV's loss is our gain tonight. O'Doherty is so entertaining that she could actually teach us about soil erosion if she wanted (seriously though, don't worry, she doesn't).

 

Claudia O'Doherty: What Is Soil Erosion?, Gilded Balloon Teviot, Aug 5-28 (not 16th), 20:45, £8/£9