With the sun outside glaring through the windows, this is a tough place for Australian Jo Loth to perform her cabaret about mental health, charting the highs and lows of her personal experience with depression. Jo and her German alter-ego tell their tale with undeniable vocal talent, to the accompaniment of her pianist Toby. This is a soul-bearing show which verges on the awkward - a rap felt particularly painful - but the underlying message here is that of a woman using performance as therapy. It is experimental and captivating, touching and embarrassing. Jo asks us to remember to laugh as it’s meant to be a light hearted look, and although there the odd laugh comes here and there, the story isn’t as funny as perhaps she thought it would be. Bearing in mind the topic, perhaps that is no bad thing. Mental health is tough area to do a show about, particularly through cabaret songs and story sections, but Jo performs her heart out. One can’t help thinking that coming to the Fringe, knowing that you battle with depression, isn’t the wisest move, and although this show is far from a must-see, at its heart it’s what the Fringe is about, experimentation, bearing your soul as an artist and performing something which may never have a home elsewhere.
