Performing as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, 'All These Pretty Things': A Musical Memoir', is a one-woman show, written and performed by Tracey Yarad, and in the 65 minutes of this performance she takes us through the story of her adult life from meeting and marrying her first husband, through to the adoption of a young daughter, to her husband's subsequent betrayal, and her moving away from her native Australia to New York and her healing. One also gets the very distinct feeling that despite the therapy and exorcising of these difficult and traumatising times, she is also using these performances as a continuation of that therapy. In her own words on the programme she boldly states, "What do you do when your husband leaves you for your teenage goddaughter? You dye your wedding dress black, write some killer songs and write a show about it!"
With a title such as it is, one was not truly expecting such a downbeat, heartfelt, and mostly miserable subject matter. There was bonhomie and some humour throughout, but we were never let off the hook completely. Using a screen above the stage to show photos and drawings etc to ameliorate and exemplify her narrative, emphasising all the time that this was her true life story, she was sincere and confidential, bringing us into her world, always only ever showing us her side of the story... and as we all know, every pale is multifaceted. We were therefore never given any opportunity to try to be objective about her situation, we were only told we had to sympathise.
Yarad is a singer / songwriter and her style is folk jazz, and so using several songs played ably at the keyboard and written especially for this show, she juggled narrative with song with ease, and her voice is a mellow soprano. Directed by Tessa Souter, Yarad is conversational and down-to-earth, and yet she still has not found a way of separating the story from the trauma. An interesting but instantly forgettable production.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 16.7.25
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