Eggs Collective Get A Round

Oh no. I really didn’t want to write this review. I really, really wanted to love Eggs Collective’s show Get A Round, especially after all the fantastic reviews that have been written about it, and the fact that it’s even going to be appearing on BBC 2 very soon! The performance is advertised as something between theatre and cabaret, and the premise is that the three female performers are taking the audience on a great night out. The venue at Summerhall was made more lively by the girls welcoming us in, offering ‘shots’ (of lemonade, or similar) to each audience member and generally ramping up the energy and enthusiasm of the room. It started with such promise, but, unfortunately, Get A Round didn’t live up to expectation.

I could see what it was doing. I could see how it was doing it. But it could have been much, much shorter.

The girls outlined the formula for a night out, allocating particular characters to different audience members. Among others, there was the one determined that “it’s not far, we’ll walk”, and the ‘Hugh Watt’ (aka “you what”) to whom everything needed explaining. There was also the ‘deflator’, someone who started with gusto and energy, before becoming a shadow of their former self – a downer, a deflated balloon. That was what Get A Round itself became. Yes, it was funny to laugh in recognition of the clichés the girls outlined, because anyone who’s ever got drunk has experienced these characters, and probably also been one or more of them. It’s funny to offer your friend forward as the ‘Hugh Watt’, but this can’t sustain an hour-long show. And there really wasn’t much more to come. Anecdotes and karaoke abounded, but, again, I can only watch someone singing pseudo-drunkenly for so long before it gets boring. And even the gimmick with the shot glasses and filling them for the audience wasn’t enough to raise the mood. There was some insightful observational comedy, a validation of female friendship and a particularly articulate moment where one of the girls ‘drunkenly’ ranted about female self-worth and self-conception: I, myself, have definitely had the very same drunken conversation with my female friends. But, once again, it was over-stretched and slowed the show’s overall pace. It all fell a bit flat.

Eggs Collective’s Get A Round endeavoured to reveal what lies behind the compulsion to binge-drink and the hedonistic search for a good night out. It endorsed the need for mutuality, love and that friend who will hold your hair back whilst you vomit. It suggested that, sometimes, the rubbish we chat when we’re drunk is, perhaps, an honest attempt to vocalise the anxieties that we keep buried. I could see what it was doing. I could see how it was doing it. But it could have been much, much shorter. And I’m not sure what’s original about having a load of hashtags shouted at me – it’s not news that we live in a jargon-istic, slogan-istic, social-media obsessed culture. So, I’m really, really sorry, but it’s 2*.