Anna Drezen @ Pleasance Courtyard
Lukewarm hour on true crime from SNL writer and Fringe debutante Anna Drezen
Like many young women, Drezen shares a fascination with True Crime. It’s evident from the clip which introduces her show that this isn’t a recent trend. Unsettlingly, it’s been around for years due to the danger and violence present in the lives of all women.
Mirroring her frustrations at True Crime podcasts cutting to inappropriate ads at the height of narrative tension, Drezen cuts to several jingly-jangly incongruous plugs after dropping revelations about gender-based violence and neurological conditions. It’s a unique ruse, but only works some of the time. The revelations are never heightened bombshells, nor are the adverts consistently strange enough to relieve the tension (if it has been built).
However, the bits that find their feet are really fun: an ad for the RSPB and a Barbie murder house, an over the dinner table mime about why Drezen is now sober, as well as how she’s genetically the best person to survive a holocaust. Also, the story of her time being trained in stage-fighting at a London drama school is highly engaging and returns for a satisfying payoff. Drezen is both a gifted storyteller and conjuror of oddball imagery, but neither skill is used to its full potential a la Sarah Kendall or Lucy Pearman.
Okay Get Home Safe scratches the surface on important issues, but from the once-editor of satirical women’s magazine, Reductress, it doesn’t deliver on the blistering takedowns someone of Drezen’s experience is capable of offering.
Anna Drezen: Okay, Get Home Safe, Pleasance Courtyard (Attic), until 25 Aug (not 14), 4.30pm, £8-£11