(4 / 5)
I have been hooked on Coco The Time-Travelling Tart ever since she sprung across my social media screen. I have always been obsessed with her interaction with audience members within art galleries and museums and the slightly fabricated tales she would tell them. When I saw that she would be doing a show at Fringe, I was so excited.
In one of Underbelly’s small containers, we have an intimate setting with the famous Coco. She is everything fabulous and wonderful, with an air of Diana about her but the filth of a drag queen. At the same time, she is so welcoming, friendly and, suddenly, we’re not an audience but good friends who have come for a journey with her.
I wasn’t sure what I would expect from Coco – I also knew that she would be doing tours at the National Museum as well and wondered how what I had seen on social media would translate to the stage. However, this was something completely different. Coco was still Coco; lewd yet beautifully friendly and ever so glamorous. But there was a narrative to the show; a lost earring meant that we travelled together throughout history, using our imagination and the odd prop to give our imagination something to run with. Obviously, not entirely historically accurate; I MAY be wrong but I’m not sure Coco, nor us (who time travelled with her in a “black cab”) were really there but the embellishments were extremely comedic and there was enough history that it didn’t go over anyone’s head. You didn’t need to be a history nerd to understand the plot and so it was accessible and humorous for everyone.
As any comedy show, a healthy dose of audience interaction is involved; whether you’re the special time travelling slave, you’re asked to offer a lap to Coco for the cab ride, or like me, you’re pulled up on the famous Titanic door or have a glug of your drink taken by the famous Coco herself. With all of this, she makes sure you are okay and comfortable and this is wonderful when we soon learn that the eye contact and nod or shake of the head is a good enough connection to allow or not allow consent. But she is also lovely, ribbing you as a friend in only a way true friends do and it was genuinely hard to say goodbye.
The show is lewd, a little crude and with that, she pushes boundaries for shock factor and this is nothing but hilarious, though maybe not for the faint hearted. And when something goes a little awry (her poor shoe broke part way through) she is so quick to turn it into a comedic moment and be with us in the laughter.
Coco The Time-Travelling Tart is a bunch of dirty, comical fun. With our friendly time travelling guide, we learn much about history and genuinely feel like we have been on one hell of a journey with this glamorous idol.
