I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar at Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★★
★★★★★ I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar | Underbelly, Cowgate
Holly Redford-Jones wows with an embarrassment of talent, combining autobiographical comedy with sublime musical performance – and invites everyone (except TERFs) to dance at the last lesbian bar in Edinburgh.
The dark, damp caverns of Underbelly Cowgate are often home to some of our most memorable Edinburgh Fringe moments – there’s something exhilarating about being led into what might be Gothic torture chamber only to be confronted instead by something daringly creative or outrageously fun.
And there are visits to Cowgate when the venue just recedes into the background, totally obliterated by the magnificence of the performance you’re enjoying – and, in this case, reimagined entirely as Edinburgh’s last standing lesbian bar. That’s right: there are no lesbian bars in Edinburgh beyond this one, conjured up as a way of reflecting on how far we’ve come as a progressive society, and how much further there still is to go.
Taking inspiration from Jonathan Richman’s iconic song, Holly Redford-Jones – seemingly effortlessly – weaves her personal story of growing up as a lesbian in Chesterfield, drawing suitably wonky parallels with the Derbyshire town’s famously crooked church spire. Redford-Jones is a masterful storyteller, with a warmth and cheekiness which often belies the sneakily political material – there’s real bite and a powerful message here, about the power and importance of inclusion and acceptance. There’s a dissection, too, of the lesbian scene and it’s categorisations of butch and femme, and of the danger of complacency at a time when it’s still not safe to hold hands with a same-sex partner in public without attracting unwanted attention. And of course, this being a comedy show, there are plenty of laughs – Redford-Jones has a winning way with words, and a relatability which has the audience in the palm of her hand.
Except: those palms are busy! Not content with ‘simply’ delivering a hilarious hour of comedic storytelling, nor with knockout jokes which find light amidst the darkness of homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, racism and all the rest of modern life’s pile of shite, Redford-Jones also graces us with her incredible musicianship. Her fingers slide mesmerisingly up and down the fretboard of her Fender Stratocaster, knocking out impeccable chilled-out covers (including the titular song) with sublime vocals. IT IS NOT FAIR FOR ONE PERSON TO BE THIS TALENTED.
This is a beguiling, hilarious and bewitching hour of personal Sapphic history blended with social commentary, wrapped up in a warm blanket of love. An ode to being free as who and what you are, with jokes.
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like: nice pubs, film marathons, not doing real marathons, bad comedy, plays/musicals with shorter second halves, and the Oxford comma.
