Clad in tight-fitting bodice and flouncy skirt bright enough to make your eyes bleed, Brigitte Aphrodite (her real name she assures us, explaining that she is half Greek) works the audience pre-show, offering a dusting of glitter on the face. Lacking dignity already, your critic felt obliged to decline the offer, fearing the effect of his glittery ravaged face on the good folk of central Edinburgh. Which was the last negative emotion experienced until the end of the show.
A confessional rites of passage told through poetry, anecdote and, mostly, song starts with Brigitte reacting to childhood taunts about her looks and ethnicity with a convincing gaucheness and vulnerability that is soon shed once she realises that the abuse does not define her. Soon she can even accept the crushing greyness of suburban south-east England as she finds out that cool people such as David Bowie also hail from her home town of Bromley.
Introducing us to her guitar, named after the god Jarvis Cocker, she leads us through her early emotional education, from fumblings in the school chemistry lab to an encounter both bizarre and romantic though chaste with an older man at a bohemian seaside party. Along the way there are tales such as the fight with a celebrity look-alike fairy resolved by a mind game which owes more than a little to J M Barrie.
Given the guitar Jarvis, it is not surprising that the songs, to these ears at least, bear a not un-appealing resemblance to the work of Pulp, and manage to avoid, to a great extent, the bane of the comedy song which is the obvious rhyme. The whole affair is delivered with an assurance and brio that tell us suburban hell is far behind her. Also, a pretty girl unafraid to pull silly faces and make silly noises here proves that this need not mean at all that she appears silly herself. Funny, yes.
A sparkling mix of comedy and music delivered with a great deal of impish, knowing charm promises more in the future. Brigitte Aphrodite is young yet and new material of broader scope will surely bring the bigger audiences to come much pleasure. Mr Cocker should be honoured by her admiration.
