Natalie Palamides is no stranger to the Edinburgh Fringe stage, having won best newcomer in 2017 for her raucous later ego, Nate. Returning to this year’s festival but on the Traverse’s stage, Palamides delivers an electrifying whirlwind 90’s romcom in her new show WEER. Splitting her face and body down the middle, Palamides plays both Mark and Christina over the course of their three-year relationship. Donning a flannel plaid shirt and baggy jeans on the right and a hot pink tank top and low-rise jeans on the left, it’s one of those pieces of theatre you must really see to believe.
We’re introduced to the two lovebirds in the middle of a heated argument at a New Year’s Eve Party in the woods. Mark is begging Christina to stay, and in a perfect Californian drawl keeps repeating “But it’s New Year’s Eve, 1999.” Christina is desperate to leave Mark behind having caught him flirting with other girls. Witnessing Palamides switch between the two by turning her body from facing stage right to left only adds to the hilarity and eccentricity of the piece, and it’s a testament to her craft and precision that she’s able to change her physicality and voice at the speed at which she does this.
Eventually Christina is able to pry the car keys from Mark and an especially zealous audience member, but it proves dire as she hits a deer on the road and causes a major accident. Mark is able to find her bleeding on the side of the road, and in what is believed to be her final moments, they return to how they met and fell in love.
The story that unfolds utilises every romantic comedy trope in the book from a coffee staining meet cute to a declaration of love on a bridge. Their relationship is a mess, as is the slew of props and set that lay discarded across the Traverse stage. But every piece of the stage used by Palamides is squeezed for every ounce of comedic value. It’s a sight to behold, in all of its messy, satirising glory and its truly nothing I’ve ever seen before or might ever see again.
Natalie Palamides: WEER is on at the Traverse Theatre, from Aug 1 to 25 at 21:30.
Buy tickets here.
Image provided by Traverse Theatre Press Release