EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LOUISE YOUNG: FERAL, Pleasance Courtyard

Feral is a show that at its core, is about leading a chaotic and dysfunctional life. Louise Young assures us she is (mostly) alright now but spent many years not being quite so alright.

Hailing from Newcastle, Young acknowledges that her Geordie accent does need to be somewhat neutralised for an international audience. She describes herself as working class and her family has a history of mental health and addiction issues. 

There's a lot to pack into this hour and living up to the show blurb, it is somewhat chaotic. While there's a definite narrative to the show Young gets sidelined with conversations with the audience and forgets to set her watch to make sure the show runs on time. You still never feel that she's lost control of the storytelling which makes this an incredibly impressive debut. 

Feral is definitely the right word to describe some of Young's life. She's a working class, half Geordie half Turkish lesbian who has previously absconded from a mental health hospital while being assessed for sectioning. While big topics are tackled, you feel like you're in safe hands as she's such an intensely likeable comic. There are a lot of big laughs to be had with relatable content about the hell that is the megabus and NHS mental health funding and mindfulness solutions.

Anecdotes that could be spun into someone else's entire hour-long set are sped through in a few minutes. In this debut hour, you can't help but feel that Young has enough material for her next ten Fringe shows. And I can't bloody wait to see them.

Louise Young: Feral runs at the Pleasance Courtyard until 27 August

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