ZOO (Aviary)

15-25 August

12.15

£7-£8

Sophie Willan’s dons a dodgy Columbo style detective hat and mac, recruits her trusty sidekick, ‘Frank’, from the audience (Barry just didn’t seem trustworthy enough a name!) and sharing her ‘slightly psychic’ Gran’s intuitive hunches sets out to track down her father. The show is fun, and engaging.  Willans interacts easily with the audience throughout, even though she does seem somewhat frustrated by Frank’s lack of commitment to sleuthing.  Although I suspect that she’s been frustrated by Frank in every performance.

With the use of various props, musical embellishment, moody lighting, some quite fantastical detective work, and of course Frank’s help however, the mystery is solved. Twice as it turns out! The show feels very loose and chaotic, and yet is obviously brilliantly put together and well written.  Sophie’s one woman show, Novice Detective, is a very natural, very human, and incredibly enjoyable hour, if somewhat bonkers!  FOUR STARS

Reviewer : Nina Jones