Myra DuBois’ career trajectory has somehow landed her back in Edinburgh for another run at the Fringe. And having seen her hit show last year, I wanted to see the sense of loathing from DuBois, being back in a packed room with some of her admirers.
For those not familiar with Myra DuBois, she is one of the best Drag acts you can see within the UK. She is known for her appearances in pubs, clubs, theatres, movies and television shows. Renowned for her cynical demeanor, unflinching snipes at the audience and stage presence, DuBois is a class act who is known to leave the audience in tears by the end of her set. Within recent years Myra has turned into a bit of an agony aunt, helping audiences get through their toughest times, giving them wise advice to solve their darkest problems. Mostly that advice is ‘GET OVER IT’.
In this new production, Myra is reeling from her sister’s betrayal, after she released a memoir which paints Myra in a less than idyllic way. Whilst ordinarily this show would have a scripted narrative run through it with audience interaction in between, due to a technical glitch which caused a delay in the performance getting started, Myra opted to go off the rails (quite literally), and give the audience a special performance, which left us questioning her sanity rather than our own.
DuBois’ audience interaction is the best you’ll get at the Fringe, she holds no prisoners and her unfiltered quick responses to even the most questionable of audience members leaves the rest of us in hysterics. We got more than we bargained for with Myra going off-piste from the script and focusing on giving the audience a hell of a show to make up for time waiting in the pissing rain. With this we missed out on some of the scripted sections of the show, but this didn’t dampen our night, it actually made the performance all the more comical.
Bar a meditation session which left this reviewer in a fit of laughter, the scripted sections seemed too narrative heavy, and didn’t quite flow as well as the more ephemeral moments of the performance. It seemed that actually it was a better performance without Myra being tied to the script, she focused on the audience and that paid off. Right enough, seeing her balls up some of the scripted sections and seem on the verge of a mental breakdown was hilarious.
Due to the performance running over because of the delay in starting, some audience members had to make a quick escape to their next show. Myra holds no prisoners and absolutely rinsed them as they exited the theatre, leaving the rest of us in stitches. And those of us (including myself) who also had another show to dash off to, remained firmly glued to our seats, knowing that DuBois would make a mockery of us, and then some.
However, you didn’t want to leave, despite her cynical demeanor, Myra’s humour, stage presence and comedic talent holds the warmth to keep an audience in that room all night. She leaves the audience wanting more. I do feel if we got the entirety of the scripted version of this production it might not be the case, but due to the way that DuBois used the audience as a device for her comedy throughout the performance it felt more personal and engaging than most comedy shows at this year’s Fringe.
Myra DuBois has returned to the Fringe with a hysterical show, where no one is safe… not even the back row. This is a great performance where even when it went wrong, DuBois’ comedic talent held it’s ground and gave the audience one hell of a show.
Currently playing Pleasance Dome – KingDome until 27th August.
Get your tickets here – https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/myra-dubois-be-well
Theatre Scotland 
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