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Comedy Review Good intentions gone for a Burton

Butterfly Effect
Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds/Touring

 

ONE day last year, Juliette Burton was informed that her aunt had a terminal illness and her dog had died.

 Steve Ullathorne)

Finding herself alone and in tears at London's King's Cross Station, her life was changed when a stranger gave her a tissue — a small gesture that made her reconsider her own and society's attitude towards kindness.

The comedian acknowledges that she hasn't always been kind to herself, with Butterfly Effect drawing heavily on her personal experiences. They're particularly rooted in her difficult relationship with her conservative parents — who disapprovingly view her as a “liberal feminist” — and her mental health.

Her family dynamics and the taboo of mental health are variously challenged through a gameshow about her diagnoses — “Juliette's list of labels” — and audio sections in which she talks to her “inner voice,” that of her critical parents, while getting increasingly drunk.

The delivery of these segments veer wildly in tone. Speaking disconcertingly fast during a furious rant about old people, she then shows her vulnerabilities when talking about being sectioned for an eating disorder at the age of 17 and she's raucously funny when giving cat-calling a feminist twist.

The tone seems to be partly dictated by the audience. Responding directly when certain sections fall flat, she intimately draws people into the show, a buy-in essential to its overall success.

The latter part is built around a challenge to carry out random acts of kindness, accompanied by blurry footage of her own attempts, variously thanking street cleaners and complimenting people on items of their clothing. The audience is then encouraged, using the hashtag #DareToBeKind, to perform random acts that have been suggested by others.

Butterfly Effect is a simple idea in complicated times and while Burton's drive for kindness and her call to donate to Mind come from a sincere place, at times those good intentions are undermined by the show's unevenness.

Tours until January 24, details: julietteburton.co.uk.

 

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