Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister

Pleasance Courtyard
4-30 August, 13.00

Rebecca Peyton believes that you can disempower something shocking by talking about it. Over the course of an hour, she speaks candidly about her sister Kate, who was murdered in Somalia while working as a journalist. It’s not a little disconcerting to review real-life trauma. How can grief be critiqued? I can only follow Peyton’s example by writing frankly.

It isn’t always easy for an audience to willingly subject themselves to hearing about the kind of family tragedy we all hope will never happen to us. Yet it is impossible not to be moved. Where Rebecca Peyton really excels is in her ability to inject life-affirming joie-de-vivre into the most painful of circumstances. She hasn’t become embittered since losing her sister: she asks questions, is able to laugh at herself, and wishes no ill on anyone. Through the power of poignancy, she recalls the best of humanity in the face cruel misfortune. At times witty, at others heart wrenching, her one-woman show is always engaging in its raw, emotional honesty.

- Miranda Fay Thomas