Review: GILLIAN COSGRIFF: ACTUALLY, GOOD, Soho Theatre

“There’s just now”

Gillian Cosgriff: Actually, Good begins with Cosgriff performing using a looper pedal, with backwards vocals and some chords from the onstage keyboard. She gives us context for several things that we need to know in order to understand the show, including that the Whitsundays are islands and Australians like to make touristy things that are “big,” like the “Big Prawn.” And, after some technical issues with the looped pedal, the show begins.

Cosgriff tells us that she was on holiday for seven days in 2022 in the Whitsundays (see? Context!) with her partner but found herself unable to relax, especially because it was raining every single day. That’s when the idea for a new game of sorts hits her - she asks her partner to list their top ten things they like, going from the least-liked at ten to the most-liked at one. Since then, Cosgriff has been on a mission, collecting the top ten likes from friends, family and audience members in what she refers to as the “Book of Good,” a giant book that rests on a desk throughout the show.

We are told that we are going to be creating a list of our own top ten together, with Cosgriff saying a number and then an audience member replying with “I do” before giving their own “like.” The idea of using audience participation to create a new list for the “Book of Good” is sweet, but it doesn’t really lend itself to an hour of comedy, especially when some of the biggest laughs are in response to what previous audience members have said in the “Book of Good,” not Cosgriff’s own jokes.

Indeed, Cosgriff’s sense of humour in the show tends to be very cheesy and/or relatable jokes and dozens of pop culture references, with a whole segment on millennials and another on “early onset nostalgia.” A highlight of the show is when she simply tells a story about what happened when she tried calling a mental health hotline, a story that had myself and many in the audience nearly in tears of laughter. 

Unfortunately, the musical aspects of the show that I was most looking forward to tended to be the moments in the show that really pulled me out of it. In the opening number, Cosgriff struggled with the looper pedal, as she had sung something backwards and was trying to lead up to a moment of revelation in which the words were reversed, which ended up being a moment of awkward silence with her backwards vocals continuing to loop while she tried to fix it. Quite a few of the songs had piano accompaniment that felt off, with discordant chords and what sometimes sounded like wrong notes throughout. Cosgriff does have a lovely voice, though, and it was nice to hear her sing a few times. 

Ultimately, Gillian Cosgriff: Actually, Good is a fun show with an interesting concept, but I struggled to really connect with the work and Cosgriff’s performance as a whole. Having the classic Fringe “dark moment” towards the end of the show takes away from the joy that has been provided and left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, unable to think of a list of nice things for my own life.

Gillian Cosgriff: Actually, Good runs until 18 May at Soho Theatre

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