EDINBURGH 2023: Review: NOBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, Underbelly

It's New Year's Eve 2015 and Jamie Finn is at home watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny on TV instead of celebrating with friends. He's recently been dumped by his long-term girlfriend Cordelia.

After moving with Cordelia in his second year of university, Jamie is looking for somewhere new to live. He enquires about a room on a flatshare website in a disused warehouse and goes to meet Lily, his potential new flatmate. The flat was incredible and he fell it love with it instantly. He was initially intimidated by Lily's coolness but the two quickly became firm friends.

Lily's friends fast become Jamie's friends. They are inseparable and Jamie goes to the spin class that Lily runs every morning. Centre stage there is a spin bike and this punctuates the narrative and Jamie's routine. The play is soundtracked by fun pop songs.

Jamie is a likeable performer. He wanted to be a musician but claims he never had the talent but his acoustic songs used in the show are catchy and funny. An excellent storyteller, the only thing that is slightly disarming is one incident that he insists "this part is definitely true". While of course things are written and rewritten and twisted for dramatic effect, it kind of breaks the spell a bit.

Nobody Is Talking About Jamie focuses on the very specific heartache that comes with the ending of a friendship. This is no shortage of stories about romantic relationship heartbreak and it tends to be taken more seriously. This show is a great insight into how important friendships are and how devastating it can be when they end.

Photo credit: Max Budney

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