Sunday 22 March 2020

NT Live: Fleabag: Film Review

NT Live: Fleabag: Film Review


Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag show rises and falls a little on how much you know of the TV version.

With the first series essentially being a fleshed out version of the stage play, some of the emotional beats are anticipated and expected.

However, that's not to detract in any shape or form from Waller-Bridge's mesmerising turn on a stage that's essentially just lights and and a chair.

Stripped back to basics, and with occasional voiceover coming from pre-records, it's Waller-Bridge whose subtle shifting of facials and delivery keep you relatively riveted through some of the smut and salaciousness of Fleabag's escapades.
NT Live: Fleabag: Film Review

It's not an intensely physical show, but it is one which shifts on a dime, and turns into more emotionally devastating territory without much warning.

While the basic show delivery means there is nowhere to go but to watch Waller-Bridge, she does more than enough to keep you in her thrall for 90 minutes.

Fleabag's NT Live show won't be for everyone - the mix of content and tone means occasionally it veers dangerously close to the crass to bear, but given its effect and penchant for shocking, that's totally tonally in-keeping with the TV version's edges.

It may have originated with the stage show, and then garnered wider-appeal thanks to the fourth wall-breaking ways of its lead actress, but NT Live Fleabag demonstrates the simple power of a monologue and story delivered with such gusto and conviction by a multi-talented performer.

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