Perrier Award Nominee, Sarah Kendall, returns to the Fringe for the first time since 2007. Since this time Sarah has been endowed with the joys of motherhood and it is with this that her new show, Get up Stand up, is largely concerned.

Sound a little banal? I’ll admit I was concerned that this show might be somewhat divisive. It’s well documented that new parents are exceptionally tedious when it comes to their children and nobody wants to be barraged with baby stories for a full hour.  

Fortunately, though, Kendall manages to make this quite relatable and her performance is delivered with a real deftness of touch. The show is really about the fears Kendall has for her daughter, growing up in a world where objectification of women and sexualisation of children are so accepted.

She describes her disappointment in the messages put forward by children’s books, specifically the Ugly Duckling, to which she offers serious amendments to great comic effect. She highlights the obscene misogyny portrayed in RnB music videos and imagines in graphic detail how the video might appear were the roles to be reversed. She also describes her own failed attempts to redress the balance of the sexes during a degrading audition for a TV commercial, brilliantly funny!

A highly intelligent observational comedian it seems Kendall has lost none of her down-to-earth charm during her five year absence. A very good show indeed!

Sarah Kendall - Get Up Stand Up,

Pleasance Courtyard, 

Until 27 August, 20:30