Review: Do Our Best, Remy Beasley, Francesca Moody Productions, Edinburgh Fringe Festival By Hannah Goslin

 out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

For you Welsh readers, you would recognise Remy Beasley. But it may take a while. I spent a huge amount of Do Our Best wondering where I had seen her before, and it is a testament to her acting talent that I still did not know till googling after. Known for her role in the Welsh show, Stella, her character of Sephie could not be more far removed from her character opposite Ruth Jones.

Written by Beasely, we are introduced to Sephie who has decided to go back to girl guides to get her final badge. Dealing with the death of her mother, her feeling of insecurity and failure, and her relationship with her guide leader, we go through her motions of sadness, of loss to reliving her past and realising how much of a star she is.

Beasley is full of beans and never seems to stop on stage. I love this approach to the character, giving her a sense of still being childlike and finding her way in the World. She finds her way on the floor, on top of chairs, hugging the audience – she is as impatient as a child and we get the sense she has not grown up since the guides.

Sephie is a confident character – her want to be a star and her memory of being the centre of the world is evident, and she brings this to us in the present, ordering us around, stating memories as facts, and all in all being absolutely hilarious. Beasley shows through this her own confidence and own get go – at times slipping her own giggle at an audience interaction in, a little ad lib, and obviously enjoying her own performance, as much as we are!

And these comical and loveable moments make the hard moments, the sadness and the euphoric moments all the more poignant – when silence comes after chaos, it is beautiful, and she relishes these moments, leaving us feeling nicely energised and contemplative.

Do Our Best is a brilliant example of women running theatre – Beasley is a performer to be reckoned with, and it is guaranteed you will come out sore from laughter, from heart ache but with a new friend in Sephie.

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