Hollie McNish - The Old Market Brighton

I’d never been to the Old Market Theatre in Brighton before, but it’s a great venue — warm, welcoming,  with a friendly vibe,  and  bar that’s dangerously well-positioned for pre-show drinks. Two hours of poetry on a Saturday night might sound a bit “Guardian-Reader-Worthy”, but with Hollie McNish and Laurie Bolger on stage, the whole thing was anything but worthy — it was a riot.

 Laurie Bolger is very much a “take me as you find me” sort of gal. A rampageous helter-skelter of disorderly conduct whilst her poems bite your funny bone hard.

Hollie McNish’s insurrection is equally  laugh-out-loud funny,  but maybe more subversive, picking apart the ludicrous nature of gender stereotypes and sexual relations. Her tales of sexual  expectations walking hand in glove with the misinformation thrust upon our younger selves, easily locates itself in everyone’s memory banks of embarrassing encounters that went wrong. Her honesty in sharing every aspect of the rub-a-dub-dub of  sex, all told with a wit that is wide-eyed, but never innocent, makes for a fun evening; whilst never failing to hit its mark in satirising the boilerplate customs and conventions we live by, or at least are told to admire. Two hours of  laugh out loud fun, and sharp-edged truths from  two outstanding  spoken-word writer / performers. Turned out there was no better way to spend a Saturday night.