Marjolein Robertson, Glasgow Comedy Festival review: 'fringed with dream logic'
It may occasionally sag under its creative ambition, but this latest show from Marjolein Robertson brings an exceptional trilogy to a satisfying conclusion, writes Jay Richardson
Marjolein Robertson: Lein, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★
As the final part in a storytelling trilogy of shows that have spotlit Marjolein Robertson as a unique act in UK stand-up, Lein carries considerable burden of expectation and narrative scaffolding.
Whereas Marj dealt with the trials and traumas of the mind and O with the body, this latest instalment is broadly about the soul. And in something of a departure, Robertson has chosen folklore from the Isle of Skye - a tale of a girl tutored by dreamweaving ancients - rather than one from her native Shetland, to weave through her personal story, which here is chiefly concerned with how she became a stand-up via a series of escalating setbacks in Amsterdam.
Although she maintains that everything she shares is true, and in the main you've no reason to doubt her, Lein is fringed with dream logic, lingering marijuana smoke and mood-lightening mime, a legacy of improv classes she took in Holland. Featuring nuns indulging in the most frivolous of pastimes and a lifetime-spanning, out-of-body spiritual epiphany that's at once beautiful and dafter than a 1980s time travel movie, this is a typically layered, artful construction that instinctively chases silliness even in the depths of suffering.
Slowly we learn that, despite the success of her previous shows, Robertson remained in personal hell. At the three-quarter mark there's an unnecessary digression into Lord of The Rings whimsy, speculating on which of the characters would make the best boyfriend, enthusing some in the crowd while alienating others and checking some momentum.
Lein may occasionally sag under its creative ambition, but it concludes satisfyingly enough, with the sum of the trilogy standing as an exceptional artistic achievement.
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