Review: Hannah Gadsby: Woof!

The Fringe has seen its fair share of returning royalty: comedy and theatre titans coming back to the festival that’s played a not-insignificant role in launching them to stardom. Hannah Gadsby of course owes much of their success to their industry-jolting Netflix special Nanette, but that was first seen live on the festival circuit back in 2017 – the year they scored the coveted Comedy Award here in Edinburgh.

Woof! is their first show in Edinburgh since that historic year, and it bears the hallmarks of what we’ve come to expect from the now-household name. Genuinely unexpected takes on the most expected of topics (the internet; gender; grief) – and the less expected (whales; motels) – delivered with a seasoned sharpness and easy wit. Masterful blending of the observational with the personal; tempered joy and measured tragedy; tension and release. But there’s been a growing confidence across their last few shows, something they acknowledge here. In a way, it’s a delight – shrouding the set’s structure in the slack shoulders of casual offhandedness.

But they worry about the effects of fame. By their own admission, it’s changing them – as it is wont to do – and with a discipline as ancient as someone holding court to share relatable truths about the world, there’s that risk of increasing displacement, of disconnect. In the opulent surrounds of the McEwan Hall, Gadsby slings out wordplay and quips about the Barbie movie, and it feels – I don’t know – safe? Of course, not everything needs to be the gut-punch trauma of a Nanette, and it would be unfairly reductive to say they’re only at their best when excavating that kind of pain for our entertainment. But even Douglas and Something Special had more teeth than this. The most incensed they get this evening is about plastic plants.

Gadsby is, without doubt, a consummate comedian, who’s written another technically exceptional show. But their peak moments have been when they contort enormous feelings into tight, wry shapes, barely containing their frustrations, their confusion, their fury. Woof! is a brilliant show, but with perhaps more bark than bite.