EDINBURGH 2021: Review: PUSH, Pleasance Online

Push is a theatre film from Popelei, a collaboration between writer-performer Tamsin Hurtado Clarke and writer-director Scarlett Plouviez about a woman waiting to find out the results of a pregnancy test. An awful lot can happen in the space of three minutes.

The woman in the film had decided not to have children but at age 37 finds herself in this situation, waiting for the test to change colour. Clarke dances out her impatience and frustration all the while vocalising how she imagines her child will turn out to be and weighs up her expectations versus reality.

Clarke is an engaging and confident performer and the digital recording is extremely high quality. There's a lot of insight into the pressure that people feel to procreate and where exactly that pressure comes from (parents, the media, society). This is all portrayed as a stream of consciousness which is where the piece lost me slightly. Push was originally staged as an in-person performance and while I think the quality of the film is excellent, I think some of the emotional intensity of the piece was lost for me.

Push is available on demand from 6 August.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/push

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