By Ron Bingham
Lizzy, sometime comedy partner of Juliette Burton (as in Mace & Burton), is performing her first solo show this year. She plays a variety of characters who are the un-noticed or overlooked or ignored in life, starting with her own stage manager and moving through the girl who always looks after the coats at a party, a very shy dating video, the “other” baby bear from Goldilocks, a wallflower, fruit, the fourth pig in The Three Little Pigs and, what I am guessing is Lizzy’s favourite character, a psychotic sock puppeteer.
Lizzy plays the characters with just the use of some headgear, lashings of charm and a lot of energy and the audience is given an insight into the lives of those they don’t tend to see. There is some melancholy amongst the laughs and though all of the characters are quite different, showing Lizzy’s great performance skills, they are a fairly flawed or delusional bunch. There is a small section where there may be some terrible puns, but I don’t recall any swearing or anything that could offend sensitive punters.
The only problem is that this is in the still-under-construction Cowgatehead, so there is carpentry all around, no loo’s, little signage (look for the numbers taped to the doors, which are all covered with posters, so good luck trying to see the doors themselves), and a lot of noise filtering through from the shows all around. This is a great shame for punters and performers alike but shouldn’t put you off this very fringey creative, comedy experience.
This is a very good first solo effort from a very talented and intelligent performer, so try not to overlook this show in the programme. Do feel free to overlook the impertinent flyer-ers out the front of the venue, who will try to entice you to change to rival performances.
Lizzy Mace is performing Overlooked at Cowgatehead. For Tickets and more information go to the Edinburgh Fringe Website: