BBC New Comedy Awards 2022 finalist Marjolein Robertson returns to the Fringe with a new set that blends the Scottish folk tale with real-life trauma. Marjolein performs with warmth, flair and admirable candour, and shows how folk tales as old as time can still contain themes that resonate today.
In Marj, that played in Stand 1 at The Stand Comedy Club, Robertson uses the power and relatability of folk stories to help her recount her experiences of systematic abuse. Robertson’s show begins quietly as she sprinkles witty similes over the audience when talks about travelling home to Shetland on a plane, which is like “a bird who doesn’t talk back” that flies using propellers, which are like “helicopters blown on their sides.” Towards the end of the first third of her routine, when the jokes become more relatable, the set finds its feet, and the intent behind Robertson’s narrative becomes clear. From then on, Robertson seems to relax into it more and feeds off the audience’s enthusiasm, interacting with people without being cruel to them.
Robertson is a wonderful orator. Her rich Scottish tones eagerly recount a Shetland folk story featuring a female Selkie who, upon visiting dry land, sheds her seal skin to appear in human form. Then tragedy strikes. She can’t return home to the sea because she loses her seal skin but falls in love with a fisherman and finds a new home with him, a man who isn’t as loving as he initially appears to be. The sea is always there though, in the background. It never leaves her. This folktale involves a horrific betrayal and ultimately optimistic end, and toward the end of her show, Robertson finds very moving ways of linking her own emotional trauma to this story of a female Selkie who loses a part of herself and runs away to reclaim her identity.
As well as having a great voice for telling stories, Robertson also has a distinct narrative voice. Her routine is very cyclical in that anecdotes are told in the beginning and then revisited later, either to serve a witty punchline or to develop in a way that adds a whole new layer of profundity and meaning. An anecdote told at the beginning of the set about how a family member inspired Robertson’s choice of pre-show music is returned to in the climax and developed in a way that will nestle in your heart long after the house lights go up.
Marj not only showcases Robertson’s wit and encyclopaedic knowledge of Scottish folklore, but also her warmth and sincerity. Robertson’s ability to use her talents to articulate difficult experiences with wit and poignancy makes her one to watch.
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