Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond
Camden Fringe 2023
Full of charm and poignancy, this play about a young girl with an eating disorder is certainly food for thought.Summary
Rating
Good
A few years back I witnessed a middle-aged woman play a young child. She did so in a garish frilly dress and high-pitched voice, portraying the child in a way that I hope never to see again. Oh the horrors: I still have flashbacks late at night. Which means I approached Scruffy with some fears, because this is another show where an adult takes the role of a young child!
Thankfully it goes well. Rosie Hollingworth‘s Maisie begins by telling us all about herself, in that way young kids love to. We know it’s a young adult playing a nine-year-old but she doesn’t lay it on too thickly. Her voice is youthful but not shrill, while her outfit is likewise much more fitting of a normal child. Hollingworth instantly draws us into Maisie’s world with her health and safety announcements, making it very clear that in the event of fire we should not look to her for leadership: she is only nine!
It’s a performance full of charm, and it’s hard not to care about her, especially as she has a feeding tube in her nose, wordlessly showing us something is not quite right. That something is slowly revealed through repeated references to food and eating. It’s subtle and well-worked into an amusing script that sees Maisie put on dance routines, a quick PowerPoint presentation on her favourite things, even some poetry and her own self-written play. But between all this, we discover she’s in a clinic for eating disorders. It’s not her fault though. Rather it’s the evil pixie, Scruffy, that lives in her tummy who stops her from eating sometimes. There is a sadness present as Maisie lets us see her struggles. Watching her fighting with herself to try to take a bite of her favourite chocolate bar is truly heartbreaking.
Whilst the charm carries this show so far, there are, however, aspects that require tightening up. At times the pace drops off more than is ideal, especially towards the end when things become a little more serious. Whilst this is in part due to a need to bring the story towards a conclusion, it could do with a much stronger, concise ending. On more than one occasion I was ready to start the applause prematurely, a clear sign that the final scenes could and should be condensed in some way. There also needs to be more done to show a separation of scenes, as it is not initially obvious that we are witnessing more than one day in her young life. Sometimes lights drop to signify this but at other times Maisie moves from one scene to the next with no obvious break. We need reference points.
But there is more that is great about this show, especially some highly enjoyable audience participation. Hollingworth superbly demonstrates a typical nine-year-old’s attitude towards adults who just aren’t listening to her instructions properly, getting annoyed at her co-stars in the little play she puts on for us, and later not quite understanding why an adult cannot complete the self-defence routine she has demonstrated very clearly.
Scruffy is a lovely gentle play that never pushes its subject too heavily, but rather draws us along with its young star, allowing us to see the struggles of an eating disorder. It’s a play that you feel could be developed and taken into schools to help spread a message that there is light at the end of the tunnel for those struggling with such issues. But besides that, it is a show that has finally banished my nightmares of adults playing young children!
Written by: Rosie Hollingworth
Produced by: Holly Cowley for Sugar Theatre
Scruffy has completed its run at Camden Fringe 2023.
