EDINBURGH 2023: Review: FIELDING EDLOW: GASLIGHTING IS MY LOVE LANGUAGE, Just The Tonic At The Grassmarket Centre

When you hear people talking about getting divorced, you typically hear two different perspectives. You have those who are heartbroken and who don’t know what they’re going to do now that they’re no longer with their partner. On the other hand, you have those who are celebrating, having the best time of their lives now that they are separated. Fielding Edlow is one of the latter. And she’s ready to tell you all about it.

Throughout the show, Edlow is brutally honest, telling us exactly how she feels about her husband and what went wrong in their relationship. She is never afraid to hold back, which does make you feel for her, bonding over a traumatic experience. You might recognise Edlow and her ex-husband, Larry, from their online show, Bitter Homes and Gardens, in which a disgruntled married couple are each trying to “win the relationship.” It is heartbreaking to listen to Edlow’s description of the show and her own realisation that, when hurling insults and yelling at her husband on camera, she wasn’t acting; she was simply letting out the feelings she’d kept in her head for years. 

While Edlow is a great storyteller who never hesitates to speak her truth, there are times that can be quite jarring in the show, especially when music would begin playing and she would start dancing as a way of ending one story and beginning the next. Some were quite effective as the songs matched the tone of the stories, but I would have loved to see them used a bit more within the context of the overarching narrative as a whole.

Ultimately, Fielding Edlow: Gaslighting Is My Love Language is a celebration of one woman’s independence but also a reflection on life choices and how to move forward after over a decade of a difficult marriage. It is an insightful look into Edlow’s journey that will have you laughing and dancing in your seat along with her. 

Fielding Edlow: Gaslighting Is My Love Language ran at Just the Tonic at The Grassmarkets Centre, Just The Meeting Room at 19:10 from 11 to 13 August.

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