EDINBURGH 2023: Review: ANGELA BEEVERS: HOW TO WRITE A EULOGY THAT KILLS, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Snug

When walking into Angela Beevers: How to Write a Eulogy That Kills, Beever herself greets you, welcoming you to her mother’s funeral and thanking you for coming. You walk into a room where the stage is covered in red wigs and has a box of flashy costumes. Beevers then goes onstage and lays out the situation; it is the night before her mother’s funeral, and she still hasn’t started writing her eulogy. What is she going to say?

Beevers’s mum was truly a fascinating woman, and Beevers does a beautiful job of illustrating that throughout the show using wigs, belly dancing costumes, and a few other props. Through Beevers’ stories, we learn that her mother was not only a belly dancer but also a tarot card reader, a fiddler, and a frequent employee of the Renaissance Faire (a woman after my own heart). Beevers also talks about her father, the perfect match for her mother, who has quirks like painting slightly terrifying self-portraits. 

There is a fantastic bit in which Beevers uses a “free eulogy” site to get ideas for her mother’s eulogy, which leads to her going into more detail on her mother’s past and how it affected the people around her. It makes for a great storytelling structure that also allows Beevers to explore different parts of her mother’s life. How to Write a Eulogy That Kills definitely has its darker and more serious moments, and at times it felt like there were two shows going on at once - Beevers in the past frantically writing a eulogy, and Beevers working through her grief years after her mother’s death.

Ultimately, Angela Beevers: How to Write a Eulogy That Kills is a fun yet heartfelt show that manages to illustrate the feelings of grief that many go through when having to write a eulogy for a loved one. I may not have learned how to write a eulogy that kills, but I certainly learned more about the journey to create one that has a powerful and lasting impact.

Angela Beevers: How to Write a Eulogy That Kills runs at the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Snug at 23:00 until 27 August.

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