4 stars
Nadia Collins’ The Bride is a tour-de-force of physical comedy that has the audience in peals of laughter for the duration.
Playing with our expectations from the outset, Collins appears as nothing close to the titular character initially. With a narrative that launches from the premise of a bride waking up to discover she's turned into a cockroach, this show is delightfully bizarre.
In a high-energy performance, rich with DIY aesthetic, Collins deftly interweaves parody and satire with ludicrous fantasy. As she leans into a gratuitous portrayal of a hens night, the sort of which we’ve probably all overheard spilling from a bar at one time or another, we gain a sense of a larger although no less preposterous narrative.
Image courtesy of Nadia Collins
Brimming with absurdity and utter folly, this show is a joy to participate in as an audience member.
While Collins transforms herself into numerous characters, so does she call on us to close the distance between performer and audience, becoming part of the world she’s creating.
Within minutes, we form an undefined group of collaborators in a surreal reality. It is testament to Collins’ skill—being able to engender such willingness in a crowd is a remarkable feat.
The Bride is a show strong in symbolism and, simultaneously, gleeful abandon. Anticipation becomes delight and wonder as Collins follows through with her character’s transformation and we eagerly turn in our seats to be sure not to miss a moment of her room-filling performance.
Darting through the space in all her ridiculous glory—at times chased by a participant, at times not—Collins epitomises the quality of clowning we’ve come to expect from performers who’ve trained at École Philippe Gaulier while reinvigorating the form beyond all prediction.
A key highlight in Collins’ performance is her expert use of comedic timing. It’s a skill often taken for granted as a standard feature in amusing works, but it affects more than the humour elicited; it heavily influences the perceived pace of a show.
The Bride is an unbridled (if you will), strange, and wonderful work that leaves audiences enchanted and with a newly-warped view of comedic theatre.
Tickets available at the FRINGE WORLD website.
JASMIN SEABROOK-BENSON