Review: BRIGHTON FRINGE: MY FIRST TIME WAS IN A CAR PARK at The Quadrant, Brighton

As the city of Brighton and Hove begins its annual month-long festival of artistic celebration, BroadwayWorldUK kicked off the Brighton Fringe experience with Unzipped Theatre's My First Time was in a Car Park.

A compelling and reflective one-woman play, My First Time was in a Car Park invites us inside the mind of protagonist Mira, a young woman that tells her story of losing her virginity through fragmented time-hopping anecdotes. As we delve further into Mira's psyche, the impact of trauma on her own sense of self feels uncomfortable to watch. Using humour to deflect her pain, the audience is treated to a complex myriad of emotions, performed with impressive nuance by Molly-Rose Treves. Despite the heavy topics of sexual assault and death (trigger warnings are highlighted on the flyers passed to every audience member), Treves peppers her performance with authentic wit and charm creating many genuinely funny moments.

Full kudos to write and director Phoebe Wood, who has created a complex piece that's well-structured and paced. It's the use of language that impresses most, with some of the most powerful moments conveyed with the simplest of words.

With a common thread of the sea running through this and the three short monologues that precede it, My First Time was in a Car Park feels perfectly resonant for a Brighton audience - it's quirky, provoking, tragic...and real. It's a difficult piece of art to watch...in the best kind of way.

My First Time was in a Car Park is running at Laughing Horse @ The Walrus on May 20 and Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant on May 21.

https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/my-first-time-was-in-a-car-park/

 

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