Pleasance Courtyard
Four stars
Life’s a riot for Kelly, the messed up human dynamo at the heart of Kimberly Hart-Simpson’s emotional rollercoaster of a play which she performs herself over a breathless hour. Kelly is a nurse in a dementia home in not so sunny Rhyl, North Wales’ end of the pier holiday Mecca. The town may stink of fried onions and cheap cocktails, but for Kelly it remains a personal pleasure palace she devours like a stick of rock.
With a Tom Jones impersonator mum - her absent dad was also one, proving it’s not unusual to have such a job in Rhyl - and a selection of eccentric residents to tend to, Kelly’s life runs louder, faster and harder by the minute. When her gay best friend Amrit moves in with his new beau now he and Kelly are back from Ibiza, the duo’s disco dance diva partnership appears to be over as Kelly’s good times take a sour turn. Only life changing news of her own suggests she too might be ready to grow up and settle down.
Kate Wasserberg’s production lets Hart-Simpson go full throttle in her turbo-charged depiction of Kelly, whose self-destructive streak is damaging her relationships, her job and pretty much everything else besides. Despite this, Hart-Simpson never plays her as a victim, but more someone who is a little bit lost and who retains an engagingly optimistic approach to life. Hart-Simpson brings her own effervescence to the part in order to give Kelly a life beyond any notions of a dead end existence. With brand new responsibilities to come, by the end of the show Kelly is back on the dancefloor and looking every inch a winner as her lust for life brings her back to the grey, grey streets of home.
Until Aug 31, 4.25pm.
The Herald, August 17, 2026
ends
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