As part of the National Theatre Live program, the original stage play of Fleabag has arrived. Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote and performed the stage play in 2013, winning various awards at the time, and later developed the play into the TV series, which has now won the writer and actress further awards including a recent sweep at the Emmys.
At just over an hour, the play captures so much and yet is basically unadorned. ‘Fleabag’ rushes on to the stage and sits on a chair to face the audience. She is late for a job interview with a man whose company has recently been caught in a sexual harassment scandal. The interview – hilariously – doesn’t go well, and soon we are treated to a soliloquy of Fleabag’s life; her failing relationship with boyfriend Harry, her pain at the deaths of her mother and her best friend Boo, the problems she encounters with her sister and her father, and their respective partners – all this dirty laundry is aired. Fleabag is frank about her reliance on porn to numb her pain, but transparently evasive about her real emotional state. It is a sophisticated piece of writing to develop and communicate to an audience such a clear, present and complex woman with only one performer.
The one-woman show is a play with hints of stand-up comedy, albeit a darker shade of comedy. Where it deviates from stand up is in the use of a narrative. While the play is laugh-out-loud funny, there are also some entirely cringe-worthy moments. But this adds to the charm all the more. It’s a wonderful experience to be a little repulsed and dismayed by a character, who still has enough charm to illicit affection.
Waller-Bridge proves herself to be entertaining enough to hold the whole show together. She is brilliant, funny, obnoxious and vulnerable as the title character ‘Fleabag’. Simplicity and sparseness of the staging adds to the appeal, as there is nothing to detract from Waller-Bridge’s commanding performance.
The play is very different to the TV series, as to be expected with the differing mediums. But the play shows the clear promise of what will be developed, and the two versions are remarkable in their own right. One would be hard pushed to find a comparison to Fleabag – either the show, or its star and creator. There really are very few artists working in this space who can deliver on the work that we get from Waller-Bridge.
National Theatre Live: Fleabag screens for a limited time from 12th October through Sharmill Films.
