Brian Watkins’s adeptly crafted, California-set tragicomedy Weather Girl enjoyed a sold-out run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, garnering a clutch of awards along the way. A Netflix adaptation is apparently in the offing, surely a recognition that the piece would benefit from a broader canvas than its current 60-minute runtime and monologue format.  Tickets for the show’s transfer to London’s Soho Theatre are mostly on a waitlist, and it is easy to see why.

Julia McDermott is simply stunning as Stacey, a hot mess local TV weather girl suffering a booze-fuelled psychological melt-down in the face of the climate crisis. Think Legally Blond mashed up with 70s satire, Network, with an added dash of eco-warrior-style magical realism. Stacey’s as mad as hell, and she’s not going to take this anymore. Anticipate collateral damage as the city around her burns.

Stacey’s homeless drug-addicted mother describes her daughter as a “whore-clown”. The soubriquet is mean but not entirely inaccurate. The girl places an unstoppable torrent of chirpy banter and ditzy blonde sunniness at the service of TV bosses who gloss over the ravages of the wildfires engulfing California to avoid upsetting the viewers. Stacey knows she is complicit, admitting she “has learnt to make the outside better than the inside”. Deep down, she hates herself.

Daylong infusions of collagen pills, prosecco, and vodka from a large-sized coffee cup dull the pain, as do dates with a car-racing, tech-bro whose name she declines to remember (and who is destined to suffer a hugely cathartic comeuppance). Something here has to give.  “I can’t hold this smile much longer”, she tells her director on an outside broadcast, and she means it. The tipping point comes when Stacey is sent to report a house fire in which five people die. Can she finally find redemption through the courage to speak the truth? And will anyone in Lalaland listen?

Watkins delivers a beautifully balanced mixture of sharp character comedy and earnest polemic, performed with frantic (near unhinged) energy by an enthralling McDermott, aided by zippy direction from Tyne Rafaeli. Isabella Byrd’s clever lighting highlights shifts from the high-key artificiality of the TV studio through the orange glare of wildfire to the near darkness of the protagonist’s inner life.

Opinions on what Stacey’s discovery of hidden, magical, water divination powers adds to the mix will vary. It certainly brings a tone of Californian hippy consciousness. The mother-daughter dynamic, which comes to a head in a car wreck of a visit to a karaoke bar, feels similarly underexplored.  Gripes aside, Weather Girl merits its rave Edinburgh reviews.

Writer:  Brian Watkins

Director:  Tyne Rafaeli

STAR RATING:  4 stars

Weather Girl – Soho Theatre

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