National Theatre Live: Fleabag

Amazon's short series of filmed versions of West End shows continues with a recording of "Fleabag" Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one woman show that she subsequently adapted into a two season BBC sitcom that I thought couldn't possibly live up to the hype, but was actually phenomenal stuff.

Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) recounts to the audience about various aspects of her professional, personal and sex life, following the death of her business partner and friend.

Whilst Waller-Bridge is a wonderful actress and carries this (mostly) one woman show through to it's completion (there are some voice overs that she interacts with at times) watching the show after seeing the series feels a touch underwhelming. I mean, this is natural though, it's a 90-minute piece, with no sets, props or other actors, relative to a fully realised six hours or so of Television. The series length gives her much more time to expand on some of the themes that are present here.

You can see the genesis though and why the stage show was so highly regarded. Waller-Bridge is unbelievably good with the daring, filthy and ultimately vulnerable central role. It's a much more rounded story than a collection of the examples of its most vulgar moments would have you believe, as Fleabag tries to cope with the guilt and loss that is eating her alive.

If you're a fan of the show, it's a fascinating insight into the process of adapting something. If you're not, it's a stellar performance.

OMG it just dawned on me that this woman has a severe sex addiction and emotional stuntedness and I never really got that from the series because basically I stopped after the first episode with Obama and it just wasn't for me. Also, did I just watch the cliff notes of the series? Some things seem familiar and I have watched plenty of clips because Fleabag was massive and it was everywhere but I preferred the clips to actually watching the series cause, you know, Obama... She didn't get to sexy priest though... Anyway, great performance and entertaining in parts but still Fleabag makes me massively uncomfortable and she should do a lot of therapy is all I'm saying.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's 'Fleabag' fascinated me from the get go. The story sounded great and easy to relate to, and it followed on from its original conception of a stand-up storytelling routine and then from the very positively reviewed television series (the story here based upon the first episode). Have also seen many instances of brilliant one-person shows, including various productions of Poulenc's/Cocteau's 'La Voix Humaine' and even a one-man performance of 'A Christmas Carol'.

This production of 'Fleabag', transmitted in 2019 as part of the interesting and always worthwhile National Theatre Live series did not disappoint. Actually saw 'Fleabag' when it was shown in cinemas but it has taken me a long time to get round to reviewing it, being behind on my reviewing and my personal life being difficult. Anybody who has heard of the production and the television series but yet to see either and want to see what the fuss is about should absolutely give both a try.

Visually, 'Fleabag' is very minimalist. For me though that added to the intimacy that a one-person show (well one-woman show here) and any monologue should have, if the production tried to do too much visually it would have distracted from the drama and atmosphere. Yet the simple look works very well indeed and good use is made of the space.

Cannot praise the writing enough. The adult humour is both hilarious and sly, as well as remarkably tasteful considering what some of it is referencing or poking fun at. It is not just non-stop hilarity, there is a more sorrowful tone in places that gives the production a lot of depth, these moments representing guilt and feeling alone. All intelligently done and tightly structured. The story is always enthralling, immediately grabbing the attention from the start and never losing it and the tonal shifts are seamless, amazing considering that the emotions are constantly shifting but there is nothing choppy here.

'Fleabag's' range of emotions is very wide and handled with ease. There is a pulling no punches approach to the storytelling, for example in the agreed chilling ending, but the production doesn't go heavy-handedly on that while not glossing over. The title character is always interesting and the production does a great job in allowing one to root for her.

Waller-Bridge's superb performance has a lot to thank for that. Not since Ingrid Bergman in 1966's 'The Human Voice' has a one-woman show performance riveted and moved (amused too in Waller-Bridge's case) me this much, as far as film etc viewings in the past five years or so go that is.

Overall, brilliant and one of my biggest must see recommendations in some time. 10/10

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's attempt to do a funny monologue of her fleabag character may sound promising.

However, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to realize that this is a a complete waste of time. The audience thinks so too, and sadly you can hear (and not hear) their poor reaction in the background.

At the bottom line, this show anything BUT funny.

Specifically, there are two major problems in this production:

First, her performance, as stunning as it is, constantly switches between being ridiculously vulgar to being even more ridiculously emotional. This could have worked once, but when the direction uses the same infantile approach over and over every single time, it is simply exhausting. Even unwatchable at times.

Secondly, the jokes, on, the jokes... They are either killed by bad timing, or presented dead already. If this was to be a comedy, she should have constructed the script in a way which would offer some breathing and laughing. Instead, we get a very tense hysterical speech, with "hidden" punch lines in it.

I give it 4/10 due to Waller Bridge's presentation the character which was compelling. Otherwise, a comedy which is not funny, and has more vulgarity than smiles is not worth more than 1/10.

You have to commend Phoebe-Waller Bridge. This is a totally original concept and she is very brave to come out with something so vulnerable and also to do it entirely on her own in a one-woman show. I totally understand how there is a subsection of young females who will find it very comforting that Fleabag shares their challenges in love and loss and coming of age as a woman in the modern world. I did cringe sometimes though as I think she toes the line between being woke and simply being crass very finely and sometimes crosses it. It might appear woke for a woman to be talking about sex and bodily functions etc in such an open way but sometimes it felt like it was just being crude for the sake of it, for the shock factor, and i'm not sure how much it does for moving forward the narrative. It's like lame shows about guys jacking off and farting and doing disgusting things is refreshing to men because it makes us feel more normal and less alone. There is a place for that. But such shows wouldn't be being held up as being woke and important like fleabag often has been.