Review: Olivia Levine: Unstuck

For Olivia Levine, growing up with undiagnosed OCD must have been terrifying. Sure, she spent a lot of her younger life masturbating in public places, but when it all comes to a head and she experiences her first OCD spike, her story goes from laugh-aloud to harrowing.

Unstuck is a vulnerable, breathtaking show about the intersection of Levine’s mental illness and the discovery of her queerness. She takes the audience with her as she breaches the lowest of her lows, unafraid to discuss the undiscussable. She thought she’d managed to impregnate her own mother; she had a sex dream about her dad and step-mum; she believed she had a killer vagina. Interspersed with these tales, she argues with her own disembodied voice about what she can and can’t – should and shouldn’t – remember.

Levine is a mesmerising performer: charming, sharp-witted and perfectly pitched to find the tricky balance between dark humour and gravitas. More than a witty look back at how her condition has impacted her across the decades, Unstuck is about dealing with obsession, what to share and when, and the timing of what makes a tragic circumstance funny and why.