EDINBURGH 2017: Review: RACHEL PARRIS- KEYNOTE, Pleasance Dome

Rachel Parris left Loughborough Academy 16 years ago and has been asked to come back to the annual prize giving event to deliver an inspirational speech to a couple of hundred teenage girls. In Keynote, she explores what kind of role model she could be to these young women, exploring different approaches to speeches through characters, songs and lists.

At the door, we are asked to write down words of wisdom for these teenagers and Rachel uses them a few times throughout the show, riffing on some of the funny things audience members have written down with mixed results. Perhaps some pre-written cards could help here to inject a few more laughs here. Parris loved lists as a child and employs them throughout the show to cover a multitude of topics such as love, fear, getting out of women's marches, drugs and allows her to deviate from her main theme to perform an awkwardly funny song about her sex life. Another song portrayed in music videos through the glamourisation of violence and war, an interesting topic that could perhaps have been explored further.

Rachel Parris has an amazing voice, she sings and play the piano beautifully and would not be out of place in musical theatre. Musical comedy is clearly her specialty and I found myself waiting for the next musical number during character sections, some of which felt a little dragged out.

Overall, Keynote is an enjoyable hour with some great moments and a genuinely uplifting song to send audiences on their way.

Timings and ticket information for Rachel Parris: Keynote are available on the edfringe website.

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