FRINGE 2018: Why you need to see… Rose Matafeo

Who: Rose Matafeo What: Horndog Where: Pleasance Courtyard - Pleasance Above When: 6.20pm Why: Audience interaction is a real thing at the Fringe. The entertaining back and forth between crowd and performer is fun and it often shows the quick wittedness of the comedian. There’s no heckles, just warmth. After all, this is Edinburgh. It may be the world’s biggest arts festival but it’s also the most middle class. And the whitest. It’s like being at Augusta for The Masters. But there’s definitely interaction. Nowhere more so than at Rose Matefeo’s brilliant Horndog - in part because she’s challenging audience members to games of table tennis in the moments before her set starts. It’s certainly different. When she does get going it’s a blistering hour of fun based heavily around teenage sexual angst. She’s by turns self-deprecating, loud, clever and hugely funny. She throws different threads out on a whole range of subjects and then gently and cleverly weaves them together in the final ten minutes like she’s crocheting a Rembrandt. By the time she’s done you’re almost gasping at her brilliance. She meanwhile, is on the floor. Matafeo has one speed – high. How she keeps pace through the first fifty minutes is remarkable. How she quickens it down the stretch is something altogether more impressive. Yet she does, and you’re rewarded with the most exquisite two-part ‘reveal’. From Franz Ferdinand, to masturbating in the bath, pencil cases to #MeToo – “I’d probably fuck the patriarchy if he had nice arms” – there’s rhythm and style and very organised dysfunction. There should also be awards nominations too because this is one of the finest shows at The Fringe. As we shuffled out afterwards someone claimed Matafeo was a “star in the making”. On this evidence she’s already made it.

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You can buy tickets for Horndog here.