Words: Billie Cogman
Image: Nicola Grimshaw-Mitchell

4 stars

The premise of this show is pretty clear from the get-go. Hannah is here to talk to you about how she interacts with the world around her while suffering from body dysmorphia. It’s clear cut from the beginning, and she dives into it with well-worded thoughts, and some excellent analysis of how she’s coping with the things that she encounters around her.

This show exists almost fully within her own lived experiences, rarely deviating into hypotheticals, metaphors, or anything of the sort. She’s fiery and, despite the title of the show, not defensive in the slightest. She’s on the offensive this time around, and is not afraid to say how she’s feeling about people who have interacted with her and subsequently (and unfortunately for them) been written into her routines.

Hannah is a very engaging performer, and is energetic in a way that I have never seen her before. She used to do all of her material seated (when this changed, I don’t know), but she now has an excitable energy that really amps up her performance a lot. This show wasn’t aided by a room that was a million degrees, but she still held a fantastic show that absolutely captivates.

Hannah Platt: Defence Mechanism
Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker Two
20:10
Aug 6-25