Review: Kathy Maniura: Objectified

Finding a unifying theme for your sketch-character show is a challenge that has troubled some of the Fringe’s weirdest minds, over the years, but Kathy Maniura has hit on a solid premise. Proper solid. 

In Objectified she embodies a series of inanimate objects, imbuing an electric scooter with passing-fad ennui, venting the righteous anger of a white vest and turning an airpod on – both senses of the term – which gets pretty saucy (“I’m a twin!”). Be warned though: contains graphic references to earwax. 

True, this may sound a bit drama school acting class warm-up project, and the characterisations occasionally veer down a slightly predictable path; or as predictable as a comic pretending to be a jaded Spanish guitar can be. But from act one – pretentious paper straw – there’s a winning confidence about this debut hour, from an act clearly revelling in the scope for physical hi-jinks that the potentially stiff premise brings. 

She also keeps things fresh by figuring out which objects the audience are, via their own three-word descriptions. One front-row woman eventually dredges up “mother, repressed, bored” – the latter not about the show, she insists, but, more troublingly, her life. “You’re an apron,” says Maniura, which seems to go down rather well. A whole spin-off career in spirit-object identification could start right here.