Review: Self Service

Anne Rabbitt returns to the Fringe with a gentle and relatable hour

★★★
theatre review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
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Self Service
Photo by Finn Rabbit Dove
Published 12 Aug 2022

“Being is a hazardous activity,” says Anne Rabbitt’s mechanic near the start of her self service appointment. And he’s not wrong. As Rabbitt guides her audience through a total strip-down of her 1962 model, it becomes clear that it’s the little things in life that add up over the years. Being a working mother, a writer, a human simply trying to exist in this world – and then what? Is this it?

Rabbitt flits between playing the mechanic, her inner critic and herself with ease and joy; her smooth transitions lead to big laughs. She is a gentle performer, generous with her talents in physical comedy, music and monologue, there’s never the sense that the audience is in anything less than completely safe hands. Rabbitt hasn’t performed at the Fringe since 1986, but has forged a career outwith August’s clutches. Still according to the show – it doesn’t feel quite enough. This self service is an exploration of time and its constant trudging onwards in a way that is softly heartbreaking.

Self Service’s main draw is its relatability, in a way that anybody who has spent the last couple of years missing opportunities and desperately grasping at the sand of time as it slips through their fingers will understand. Still, there’s an underscore of hope and resilience and quiet power throughout; Rabbitt’s breakdown is just the beginning of a breakthrough.