There’s a lot to unpack in Elf Lyons’ new show. She arrives barefoot, tiptoed and frantic, in an extravagant cocktail dress that keeps falling from her shoulders, as if she were a femme fatale in an old Hollywood film. Her voice is American and raspy. She answers phone calls from “her husband” by picking up bananas and smokes like a chimney. Even for a clown who has become a firm Fringe favourite, this is quite the transformation.
And then, Lyons cracks herself open and lays everything bare – in the most high-concept way you can possibly imagine. At its simplest, The Woman on the Edge tells the story of the breakdown of her relationship, all the grief that came after it, and how she has begun to love herself once more. But it is also about other men, in all their dismissive, heart-shattering forms. She sings an aria made up of real things they’ve said to her. And then lip-syncs to voice notes of concern from family members, too. We are on a mission into her psyche.