In the summer of 2020, Chloe Petts intended to debut her first full-length show in Edinburgh, but we all know what transpired there. Transience is one of the most accomplished debuts I’ve ever seen at the Edinburgh Fringe because the Kent-born comic, who was already making waves on the stand-up circuit, had two extra years to work on it.
A new performer is introduced in the traditional “this-is-me” fashion, with Petts eloquently describing who she is and how she got to where she is. She discusses gender, a significant topic at the Fringe, in a way that is approachable, calm, and quite amusing.
Petts claims that she has always felt old, although a more sophisticated kind of old. She enjoys playing football and owns Crystal Palace season tickets. She feels as though she loves football the way males love it, strongly identifying with boy culture despite the fact that there are certainly many women who enjoy football.
These days, she mainly dresses in loose blouses and pants. She laughs onstage about her “Pre-Gay Years” as an old photo of her as a teenager wearing a dress and carrying a clutch bag is shown on a screen. Teenagers frequently appear awkward. This picture raises the bar for awkwardness. Petts is entertainingly self-deprecating about her previous fashion gaffes since she is aware of this.
This book is chock full of funny, real-life anecdotes. She remembers being shoved over in the street by a yob with sausage fingers; it wasn’t nice, but on the other hand, it was a new experience for them to mistake her for a man. She experienced male privilege firsthand in other places as she began to be regarded more like a man.
All of this is said in a casual, talkative manner. When the final notes of Fat Les’ Vindaloo have ended, and Petts begins to tell her first self-deprecating joke, it is clear that she has an assured authority and is in complete control of the performance. Petts, who supported Ed Gamble on tour, arrived at the Fringe in top form.
The Rose Johnson-directed production points out that gender is as fluid as a river as it progresses. Petts is now content with how she looks. And never more so than when she is watching Palace at Selhurst Park and is subjected to a tedious male conversation about roads by other season ticket holders.
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