COCKY - VAN FRINGE 2018

Cocky is a show about trigonometry as much as it is about catholicism.  Which it is neither.  Cocky is a storyteller that explicitly recounts moments of her childhood.  These memories along with descriptions of her various immediate family members allow audience members to realize how childhood experiences, however seemingly insignificant, can shape the thoughts and feelings of a child. 

Touching on subjects such as alcoholism, death, divorce and religion, none of these specifically take the forefront but rather leave you with remnants of thoughts just as it seems to have for the storyteller.  As much as Beth McLaughlin captures your attention with her storytelling ability she neglects to leave you with any closure, but perhaps that is her intent.

Cocky by Beth McLaughlin is playing at Studio 16 September 6 - 16 as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

~ reviewed by Karen Roller

Click "read more" for the full video transcript.

Welcome Theatre addicts, my name is Karen and I'm here outside of Studio 16, about to go see "Cocky" by Beth McLaughlin as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. I don't know much about this production other than Beth is a story teller out of San Francisco and she's technically a Catholic.

It says that it's gonna be funny, intense, intimate and it does note that it's 18+, so I'm expecting some adult humour and outside of that, I don't really have many expectations, so it's gonna be a bit of a gamble, a bit of a surprise and I'm looking forward to it. I'll get back to you shortly.

Well, I just stepped out of 60 Minutes of Storytelling by Beth McLaughlin for Cocky and it's interesting. First of all, she seems to be, I think, suffering with a bout of laryngitis, but she had a microphone, so you could hear just fine. It was a little raspy, which I have to admit was a little distracting to me at the beginning, but then I got so enraptured by her stories that it really didn't matter in the end.

That could also just be her voice, for a storyteller, I suspect probably not, so I really don't think it affected her delivery in any way, though, it just took some getting used to. As far as the storytelling, the description says funny, intimate, and intense. I'd agree with two of the three, definitely intimate and intense, perhaps maybe intellectual. Didn't really find any parts funny, so if you're looking for comedy, this isn't the show.

As far as her storytelling, it's really her stringing together moments, mostly from her childhood where she describes them very specifically, very intriguing in her descriptions and from those descriptions and her observations also that she experienced as a child, you infer feelings and I think that's where the intenseness and the intellectual come in is that it's really truly understanding how she felt and the way that she dealt with a lot of those moments and what they instilled in her.

So, because it was her childhood, she speaks a lot of her father, her mother, her siblings. I find the reference to her siblings quite interesting. It's almost like you get a sense of not inferiority, but not really belonging in this family even as she goes into adulthood. It sounds like she feels very much on the outside looking in, which does make it very intense and you're compelled to feel for her.

She covers off a number of topics or touches on, I guess you could say, throughout the course of the storytelling with the various characters in her life, things such as love, death, divorce, alcoholism, God, she touches on. Again, nothing specific, no good, no bad, but I guess just a child's interpretation of where the moments in a child's life develop their thoughts on these topics and how those get carried through into adulthood.

So, at the end of the day, you take away all of these little stories, observations, moments and you feel like you know a little bit of this person, this character, this storyteller, and what they've shared with you and an insight really into their soul. It was very touching, absolutely touching, funny again, not so much, but definitely intense and intimate, definitely intimate I think that's probably the best word for this production.

But yeah, if you've seen this show, I would definitely like to hear your take on this, so please share your thoughts on this or any other show you might've seen in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to Theatre Addicts YouTube Station as well as check back on the website for more reviews and interviews as they come in and this is Karen reviewing Cocky at Studio 16 by Beth McLaughlin as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival, thanks.