Stop Trying to be Fantastic

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Swimming costume (swimming keeps me sane at the best of times)! Yoga mat (sorry, I’m that guy now)! The project’s development was supported by Inn Crowd, a brilliant scheme that sends artists into rural pubs. Norwich Arts Centre also co-commissioned the piece. The story is one that, as it evolved, felt like it could have been told about so many of us. Our self-doubt following us around, sat on our shoulder, like the magpie metaphor the story is staged around. Molly develops a lifelong learned habit of being a people pleaser, putting others first, being always altruistic. How many of us do the same traits apply to? With only a few trivial theatrical weaknesses, the direction of the show is solid with clever minimalistic choices proving a wise decision.

Award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor has some ideas to share – with a little help from a feathered fiend, who may not quite be the monster it seems. Review by Jeremy Day.She is currently working on several original TV projects, and her feature film 'I'll See Myself Out' is in development with Jeva Films. Molly Naylor gives a warm in>mate performance making everyone comfortable, which dispelled the nervous mist among the audience from the first word. As both writer and performer Naylor takes strong grip of the script, something needed in a production that relies so heavily on its metaphor as its core drive. As the purpose of the production unfolds seamlessly, Naylors ability to hold the audience’s attention must be admired.

Molly’s strategies for coping with her meandering life, constantly trying to please people, to be liked, to get on, are all made with the intention of running to escape the magpie, to be free of him. It becomes her own personal quest for freedom and, ultimately, happiness. The difficult, answerable questions she promises to explore (How can we stop ourselves from feeling bad? How can we stop others from feeling bad?), the drunken mistakes and lurches she gets lost in, and the emotional revelations that buffet and bruise - these all weave and wander into crystal moments of startling clarity. A fox in the headlights, a mistimed but desperately needed drink in a bar, the sound of a beak tap-tap-tapping at a rainy train window. She makes us think of the different ways we deploy to fend off our insecurities, which can sometimes be self-sabotaging. These strategies are very common: Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo, John F. Kennedy and George Washington all experienced some aspects of self-sabotage before they made history – so we are not alone. It then becomes slightly meta as we realise she’s writing the magpie story as a screenplay, pitching it to young men called Josh, and feeling mortified in the process as they struggle with the concept of someone living in ‘not London’. She’s in Norwich, which they think is in Scotland. The magpie, it turns out, is a metaphor for trauma, and trauma is hot right now.

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At first, this show seems stranded between poetic horror and funny self-help, as if Bridget Jones had wandered into The Raven (only with a magpie). But it’s a slow burner and by the end is absorbing. Writer and actor, Molly Naylor, plays a version of herself who was traumatised by a magpie at a young age. The magpie then stalks her, and she develops strategies for getting the magpie to go away.

Stop Trying to be Fantastic has only a couple of stops left on its tour (NORWICH THEATRE (STAGE 2) – 19 May & LONDON 2NORTHDOWN – 22 May). It is a show that will offer a charming theatre outing while making you think about “ what we owe to each other and what we owe to ourselves”. It will certainly make you laugh, while making you think about the metaphor that you are trying to escape. I’m going to start working on a new book project. A little break from performing will probably feel essential! The story starts with a metaphorical magpie which flies into Naylor’s childhood house. Magpies are considered to be a symbol of intelligence and wit and also, more menacingly, deceit, and the embodiment of dread. Molly tells us, often humorously, of her attempts to drive the bird away and totally engages her audience who want to know more of her adventurous journey. She takes us through familiar nostalgic territory and awakens in us memories of our own struggles. Her strategies included: getting drunk, throwing herself totally into work, and doing amazing acts of kindness. She desires approval, (don’t we all?), but striving to reach that, we often sacrifice relationships on the way.From award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor (Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You, Sky One’s After Hours) comes this lyrical and funny spoken-word show that explores what we owe to each other and what we owe to ourselves. If anyone’s seen me do a gig, I do talk quite a lot between songs. I tell stories and I try and make the introductions funny. Over the years that’s just extended until somebody said to me, “you know you’re a real folk singer when the introductions get longer than the songs!” So I thought, I need to put my money where my mouth is. I wanted to see what happens if there’s no safety net of a guitar. It’s just me with nothing to hide behind. It’s been an amazing experience learning that I can do that. I’m full of admiration for comedians who do it all the time, but I’m really proud of myself for taking the leap. How did you find striking the balance between funny and serious, when talking about such an identity-centric topic? One day, a magpie comes into a little girl’s house by mistake. It decides it likes her. She spends the next twenty-five years trying to get away from it. When she spoke her last words, I was surprised to discover my cheeks were wet with the tears that had fallen, listening to the truthfulness of Molly’s final words. Ones that we all must surely take on board. It is clear to see why Stop Trying to be Fantastic had such a great run at Edinburgh Fringe. A performance that lends itself to smaller performance spaces and possibly would feel even better in a makeshift performance space like those at the Fringe. The simple but strong integrated lighting and sound design round the production of well.