Psychodrama

Four stars

 The female gaze on the big screen takes a dark turn in Matt Wilkinson’s solo play, which muses what might happen if Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic shower scene in Psycho were turned on its head and a different kind of gore-fest was the result. This is done by putting a tellingly uncredited forty-something actress in the spotlight as she recounts the build-up to the death of a maverick director, from her youthful heyday to auditioning for the Janet Leigh role in the director’s stage version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Freudian thriller.

 

Intimate exploitation, compromising situations and other clichéd phrases that sound like titles of 1990s softcore flicks all come under scrutiny in this knowing yarn that takes a stab at the sort of godlike auteur indulged for decades. As the actress, Emily Bruni combines gallows humour and thespian insecurities aplenty to go beyond what once upon a time might have been demonised as a bunny boiler, but who now comes out fighting to enjoy the sweet taste of revenge. 

 

Traverse Theatre until 28 August, various times

The List, August 2022

 

ends