Anna Leong Brophy review: A fantastically funny skewering of female tropes
Edinburgh Fringe
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Edinburgh Fringe 〰️
Image: Dylan Woodley
by Zoe Paskett
Anna Leong Brophy is born on stage in the year 2057. She’s a brand new innocent little baby cosmic being in the perfect female body who knows nothing of the world, and it’s Mike’s job to teach her. How to dress, how to eat a jam sandwich, and most importantly, how to be a woman.
Born Sexy Yesterday is Anna’s solo Fringe debut (having previously performed as part of the brilliant sketch duo Egg), and what starts as a skewering of sci-fi tropes becomes a commentary on the way we look at women in society as a whole.
At the start of the show, she leaves Mike/[insert future male audience member name here] after 10 years of marriage – and of life, let me remind you, she is 10 years old, Mike! – to find independence and figure out the type of woman she wants to be. Surprise, surprise, her options are pretty limited: sexy baby, harangued ex-wife to a deadbeat genius, male growth plot device… How far have we come really?
She embodies every one of these tropes with gusto, painting dozens of vivid and intentionally two-dimensional portraits in a very short space of time. It’s a thrilling ride and one that covers a whole lot of ground, featuring perfectly pitched audience interactions and showing off her experience as an accomplished sketch comedian.
Anna looks to past, present and future alike with the wide-eyed incredulity of a brand new being, which serves well to show just how ridiculous all of these things are that we have been forced to become used to. How great would it be to think that in the year 2057 things might have changed? But even science-fiction can’t conceptualise a future where women aren’t kept bound by society’s seemingly eternal obsession with keeping them young, or if not young then small, or if not small then dead (but inspiring!).
Born Sexy Yesterday is a fantastically funny investigation of all of these expectations and the role that men play in reinforcing them. There is one part near the end that I can’t give any details of without spoiling everything, but I’ll just say it had me running out of air laughing.
Anna Leong Brophy: Born Sexy Yesterday is at Pleasance Courtyard, Below, 17:40 (not 19th). Tickets here
