Review: Under the Influence, Underbelly Bristo Square

Carine and Frances Gilbert, identical twins with over 3 million online followers of their twin antics, have a problem: they live together, they work together, and in all their lives they’ve never spent more than a week apart. “That seems like a lot of pressure to keep your relationship positive”, says couples therapist-cum-musical accompanist Kate (Shona Maule), taking notes about their co-dependence and lack of individuation. 

The Gilberts – and Maule – certainly have talent as musicians: the lyrics and musical arrangement of all the show’s songs are truly superb. ‘She’s Always There’, Carine’s high-energy number about the thing she’s appreciated most about Frances since the early days of her shy childhood, turns into a perturbed lament as she tries, and fails, to forge her own path. Frances’s wistful ‘My Mirror and Shadow’ is hauntingly beautiful. The choreography and staging is well thought out, especially as they try to lure their therapist Kate into becoming a thera-fluencer. The twins are clearly gracious, charming and natural in their interactions with fans, who they enthusiastically greeted after the show. 

Yet, their performances when not singing feel distinctly stagey considering the personal nature of the material, woven as it is from their actual experiences with a therapist. Is the work too close, perhaps, for them to inhabit it without some protective shellac? Or perhaps it lacks naturalism because they have to play caricatures of themselves: the chakra-cleansing third-eye seeker of signs, Frances, who’s not over her ex; versus Carine’s brashness and wisecracking, doing anything to avoid or deflect her feelings, especially about her sister. Or perhaps it’s simply the strain of trying to project vocally during the dialogue – sat in the first row, I had difficulty hearing them at times. It might have been wiser to use microphones for the spoken portions as well as the songs.

In a way, the narrative is much more Carine’s: their resolution to forging their own paths is driven forward by an opportunity Carine is offered and we never really find out what Frances will do. As a duo, they shine when playing off one another like competitive little children, with many zany high-energy moments. Anything that requires a sincere emotion struggles to hit the right pitch unless they’re singing.

The show ends on a high note with a ‘happy ever after’ closing, which is a bit undermined by the fact that the three performers take video of themselves onstage to post to their three million followers later. This is a perfectly normal thing for Fringe performers to do – but considering the entire topic of the show and the earlier exhortation by therapist Kate that “I think your jobs [as influencers] are harming your mental health”, it does rather undermine the conclusion in a way that could have been called out and incorporated into the performance – with a wink and a ‘we just can’t help ourselves’ smile, or with a jarring note of doubt that all is not right in paradise after all. Without any acknowledgement of its relation to the wider themes of the show, it leaves a jarring note of cognitive dissonance at the close.

Written, book and lyrics by Carine and Frances Gilbert
Lyrics, composition and musical direction: Shona Maule
Directed by Georgie Rankcom
Produced by Speakerphone Productions (Sophie Visscher-Lubinizki & Zoe Novello)

Under the Influence plays at Dairy Room, Underbelly Bristo Square until Sunday 30 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.