Selina Mosinski @ Pleasance Dome
Selna Mosinski brings a bittersweet tale of a girl's misadventures in the ladette era to the Edinburgh Fringe
We know the stories of the young women who made it during the 1990s ladette era: Denise van Outen, Zoe Ball, Sara Cox, Gail Porter, as well as Sylvia Young's girls, Martine McCutcheon and Danniella Westbrook. Selina Mosinski's show is the bittersweet story of one girl who didn't make it.
Our puss in boots heroine takes us back to her 18-year-old self, waylaid enroute to stardom in London. Badly advised by her fairy godmother (Sylvia Young as a floating head), Mosinski ends up working in a strip club. Barbara – who did her bit for the lads' morale in the trenches – manages the girls, while the promise of Garry and his connections in TV keeps their big-time dreams alive. Mosinski moves from one character to the next; chain-smoking Barbara, pipsqueak Garry, inflatable dolls standing in for her fellow strippers and friends.
A collage of the era's excesses reminds us of the cost of fame and underscores that, despite third wave feminism's hollow promises of sexual emancipation, slut shaming was very much alive and well. The friends swear a 'no porn' pact, but one girl, Stella, ultimately can't resist the cash.
The coda to the tale is a happy one. Sylvia Young's misreading of the runes really was wrong: it wasn't Garry who held the keys to Mosinski's success, it was The Gays. We hear about her reinvention as viral icon, Charity Shop Sue, and the creative flowering that followed.
It's a compelling story, a picaresque tale of a sweet girl's misadventures in a rather poisonous era, and with more precision in the storytelling and more space for the sadness of the tale, this could be something special.
Selina Mosinski: Puss in Boots – A Working Class Fairy Tale, Pleasance Dome (King Dome), until 30 Aug (not 19), 9.30pm, £15.50-£17.50