The world is changing, and Ria Lina is not letting it fly without comment. There are big changes in her life both in the larger political sphere and in her closer personal arena… which are also pretty darn big. Especially where the two meet. She opens with a tale of being accosted by a man challenging her Britishness, moves into a response so outrageous to her talk on International Women’s Day that it’s one of the biggest laughs, and then teen parenting, global warming, her recent divorce – it’s no wonder she’s in open Riabellion.
Lina is a whirling firebrand of energy and activity. Curious, connecting, enquiring of her audience and more than happy to go off on tangents whilst still producing material at a mile a minute. There is so much changing for Lina, not least her early peri menopause which she explains with a clarity that encompasses the science amusingly and clearly alongside the “second adolescence” more personal experience. There’s a certain amount of anti-men vitriol manoeuvred into the punchlines of fire, but it comes more from current individual frustrations she’s experiencing than and genuine Misandry.
The show overruns, which is unsurprising considering the day-specific detours taken between the beginning and the end. Some of the biggest laughs came from these, her mind mechanisms seeming to take natural comedic left-turns gravitating that way. That’s not to say that Riabellion as written doesn’t have its fair share of laughter, it’s totally there – but it’s fun to notice that rising rebellion in Lina even stretches to the confines of her own show.
Ria Lina: Riabellion, CabVol1 at Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire), 14.25, 4-24 August (except 14 and 21)
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/ria-lina-riabellion
