This is a gorgeous and touching play about losing a parent at a young age and only being able to remember them through the lens of other people’s memories. We join Truly as she tells us of her life before, and after her father, and how she pieces together who her father really was and why he was so loved by her and others.
The story is set between the summer camp Truly and her sister attend as kids and life at home, how as she was only a child she couldn’t understand how sick her father was and how she begins to cope with her father’s passing after he died. It also touches on how she feels to watch her mother go through grief and how she had to grow up much faster than most little girls her age.
To portray how young Truly was when she lost her father, a lot of the storytelling is done through playing with toys and using them as puppets. This way of telling the story makes it particularly poignant and emotional to watch. It shows how difficult and confusing it must be for a child to lose a parent.
The use of different props to show her remembering and understanding her father more is incredibly wonderful and moving to watch. Throughout the show Truly sings songs from summer camp but most of the words not only relate to happy times at camp but also to how she is feeling about her father dying and the startling realisation that she will never see him again.
The acting and performance from Truly Siskind-Weiss herself is heartfelt and touching to watch. It’s so brave to put a story so close to your heart on stage for others to see and she does it with such passion, humour, and love. This one woman solo play is a raw and incredibly moving celebration of both life and death and how grief affects us all in different ways.
By Esmé Violet Anderson
The Strongest Girl in the World
Greenside @ Nicholson Square – Fern Studios
16:20
Aug 16-19
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/strongest-girl-in-the-world
