Ania’s become a firm favourite in the last year or so, and can be relied upon for a dependable Edinburgh show - that’s not by any means damning with faint praise, knowing that everyone in my party is able to find something in it to enjoy, as is very much not always the case.
It’s a show which, on some level, is about moving in with your partner of 1-2 years when you’ve never lived with a partner before and they were with their ex for 8-10 years. Hrmm.
Beyond the cheap parallels, though, there’s a deceptive amount going on here. There’s some lovely, awfully true-ringing observational stuff at the top about “the rounds”, which is… ever so slightly contrivedly called back to at the end, but is much more structurally integral than that gives it credit for. It manages to evolve from her previous two shows (“here I am” and “a bad thing has happened to me”) to be a careful interrogation of how she handles the world without veering too far into standard trauma fare. Whilst also being very funny. It’s a skill, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
As is the joy of going to the Fringe and seeing five shows a day, you do get to draw contrasts. It’s interesting to compare to Alex Kealy the show before - where he describes himself as both being afraid of and at war with the audience, the barrier drawn up, Magliano is effortlessly happy to be there and talking to and/or with us, as natural as if at the pub or over coffee, just wanting to tell you things that have been going on in her life. Neither is inherently better than the other, but it’s compelling.
As an inside baseball thing, I did find myself paying close attention to the precision timing of her water breaks throughout the hour - sometimes on laughs she knew she was going to get regardless, sometimes on jokes that work by the use of strategic tailing off. It’s good stuff.