1. It is funny. It will make you laugh in that smug been-there-done-that way because it is about family life and gives you the chance to spend an hour watching someone else’s mum trying to keep a grip on things as her teenage kids, her surgically enhanced, 34FF friend, two beautiful men, a hands-off husband, bossy teacher and dotty granny run her ragged when she accompanies a reluctant 16 son year old to Morocco, leaving a 17 year old daughter home alone (that was the idea) to look after the fish.
2. To find out what is fishy about it, apart from seven (well, six really) goldfish. As Ginny Davis performs 11 different roles you’ll discover that what sound like innocent little thrown away lines will leap back out of the waste bin later as it all wraps up and that gut instinct is never far wrong, nor always totally right.
3. To see if a writer and performer who has sold out the Edinburgh Fringe with two plays about the same characters can bring off a third play in Brighton. Davis performed Ten Days … that shook the Kitchen! to sell out audiences and a 4 star review at her first Edinburgh Fringe in 2008. In 2010 she returned with a follow up show, Double Booked which was a sell-out show with numerous 4 star reviews at the Pleasance Courtyard and was nominated Best Theatre Production at the 2011 Buxton Fringe. Something Fishy stands alone and doesn’t require any knowledge of the previous plays but comes out of the same stable, or bowl rather.
4. For enchanting Moroccan music. Part of the play is set in Marrakech and the set and background music will transport you to the souks and beyond. Davis’s technical team spends hours honing sound effects to achieve the right level and quality of sound.
5. Because what makes a good play is a good crowd. Every person in the audience will feel as if the play is being performed purely for them as it reminds them of their family, their friends, and even themselves, but not in a good way.
Something Fishy can be seen at The Marlborough Theatre, 4 Princes St, Brighton BN2 1RD on 12 – 13 May at 6 pm and on 14 – 15 May at 7 pm.