Winner of the Audience Choice ‘Best Event’ award at this year’s Brighton Fringe, award winning character and sketch comedian Sian Hutchinson brings her hilarious one-woman show to Camden Fringe.
After being dumped by her true love Dave, Suze is determined to get back into the dating scene with seven dates all in one night at her local pub with copious amounts of white wine to get through the evening.
Sian truly channels her character Suze from the moment you stepped inside the room, handing out various sweets to audience members at the door, you felt like you were with a friend armed with snacks recounting their terrible date the night before. Once everyone was seated, she spent a few minutes chatting with the audience before starting the show.
What follows is a brilliant re-enactment of her spectacular seven date evening. Dressed in a bright green puffer jacket and rainbow leggings, you can tell Suze is a real character from the very beginning. Her dating woes are contrasted with her reminiscing about her ex-Dave, whose disinterest in her is painfully clear, tragic but relatable. ‘Speed dating is like prostitution without the financial gain’ pretty much summed up the evening to come for Suze.
From her first date set up by a colleague thinking she was a lesbian to a truly memorable rendition of Andrew Llyod Webber’s ‘Memory’, Suze’s journey from date to date, as she became increasingly more inebriated and more outrageous, was enjoyable to watch. A real highlight was Suze accidentally double booking herself, akin to a classic romcom faux pas, we see her chaotically flitting between the two dates. As the stress of two dates at once proves too much for Suze, she mixes up their very different career paths, chatting to the taxi driver about stuffing badgers rather than the taxidermist. As the dates become increasingly more terrible, Suze proceeding to aggressively dance with no music playing was the icing on the cake. Her lack of filter made all the dates even more entertaining as Sian commanded the stage as both the lead and the supporting characters.
is a hilarious insight into modern dating as a 21st century woman from the accidental Tick My Box oversharing and having a little too much liquid courage to the awkward introductions and small talk, we’ve all been there. Sian does a brilliant job of encapsulating the struggles of finding love in the age of online dating.
Tick My Box played from 4-5th August at Camden Comedy Club. Camden Fringe is running from 31st July – 27th August, check out what’s on here: https://camdenfringe.com/events/?
Reviewer: Gemma Prince
Reviewed: 5th August 2023
North West End UK Rating: