A venerable custom in comedy as soon as obliged anybody, on encountering an thrilling feminine double act, to deploy the phrase “the brand new French and Saunders”. The ultimate nail in its coffin is now hammered in by Shelf, whose entire present is devoted to subverting such gender-based pigeonholing. And what enjoyable they – and we – have whereas doing so! Via songs and two-hander standup, Rachel WD and Ruby Clyde’s full fringe debut traces their parallel gender and sexuality journeys – because the youngster of a queer couple, in Rachel’s case, born to be the brand new homosexual messiah, and for Ruby, by way of years of struggling to be straight.
That these journeys have been travelled collectively (the duo are childhood buddies) offers the present an interesting intimacy, and explains their simple, amused method with each other. It’s infectious, as a result of common musical interludes (Ruby on guitar and vocals; Rachel on gyrating and backchat) hold the present peppy, and since their adventures in gender projection are nuanced and contemporary. From the off, reflecting on their being mistaken for boys, however by no means males, the present (like their LOL Phrase colleague Chloe Petts elsewhere on the town) stakes out under-charted territory – the place masculine behaviour in a straight lady shades from “scorching” into “homosexual”, say. Or the place sexism reproduces itself even inside queer circles, as female Ruby is assumed to be the property of her extra masculine pal.
Weighty stuff, you would possibly suppose – but it surely couldn’t really feel much less so in Shelf’s fingers, as a result of it’s dealt with with such a deft contact. They chortle at their very own foibles, as their very own gender assumptions are confirmed mistaken. They finely steadiness Rachel’s attention-seeking extroversion and Ruby’s wryness. They carry out beautiful mild songs – or half-songs – about Rachel’s imperviousness to bullying at college and to dodgy males in nightclubs, and concerning the nosedive in male consideration Ruby experiences when she cuts her hair. What emerges is a candy, partaking hour not solely of gender-questioning, however optimistic gender-answering, as we inch nearer to a world wherein pigeonholes are unlatched and everybody – homosexual messiahs and tentative queer folks each – might be who they really feel themselves to be.
At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, till 28 August.
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