There’s a distinct problem with reviewing Fringe shows in the wake of the behemoth that was Fleabag, in that every other play's marketing likens itself to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s forlorn tale of meaningless sex, loveless ennui, self-loathing and guilt. While that might not be the case here, there is something distinctly reminiscent of that other Fringe classic in Claudia Fielding’s Never Get To Heaven in an Empty Shell.
The play follows Claud as she relates her fractured story of youthful disconnection and her inability to feel anything of importance. Mainly, this is aimed at the constant reminders from family members of the anniversary of her father’s death and her sister’s dissatisfaction with her continued shopping at medium-high-end couture stores. This detached distraction leads her to bump into a strange old woman in a London tube station, a woman who tells Claud that her second-hand jumper, a gift from her sister, was once hers and she wants it back.
What follows is a deliciously self-deprecating traipse through modern boredom with life, as Claud details her existence, and her budding attempts to become a lesbian. In doing so weaving a strange and touching tale that leans into the existential and supernatural.
It’s almost an insult in the end to say that it’s ‘like Fleabag’. But that's the impression which is rather unavoidable, and is no insult to the piece, mainly as this is also a very funny show detailing the modern insecurities of a young woman told in snippets of non-linear time. Only this is rather less obsessed with sex, and far more with the romance of certain old clothes.
Frankly, Fielding’s new play is an extremely endearing one, which drags the audience into Claud’s head as she starts to re-examine her life and the people and events in it. It ends a little too quickly and perhaps starts a little slowly, but it’s a brilliant new piece of theatre, brimming with self-reflection, hope amidst the chaos of self-doubt and a second-hand jumper that will sadly almost certainly never catch on as a fashion item.