4 stars
Flick is no angel working as a nurse on the front line of a palliative care ward. When hunky pyrotechnics expert Mark moves in to Room 13, his presence puts a much needed spring in her step and a rustle in her scrubs. This leads Flick to break a heap of professional protocols as she imagines fireworks of her own that don’t turn out quite as planned.
Writer/performer Madelaine Nunn hits the ground running as Flick with a quick fire series of gallows humour gags that only nurses could get away with. She flirts with patients, goes on a bender with an on/off mate and gets into far more trouble than she should. Flick’s charm may be as infectious as her dirty sheets, but beyond her inappropriate antics something more serious is going on.
A hit of the Adelaide Fringe and now brought to Edinburgh as part of the House of Oz programme, Nunn’s life and death monologue is shot through with a gorgeous mix of poignancy and cheek chock-full of empathy and heart. Whatever Flick is going through, Nunn has created a lovely little study of human frailty full of heart.
The List, August 2025
Summerhall until 25 August, 4.45pm.
Ends
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