Words: Trudy Lynn 
Image: Matt Stronge

4 Stars 

Mrs Gary Breath is a witty and endearing social commentary on contemporary and traditional womanhood, our measures of success and the madness that is the wedding industry, even and especially within our own families.  

Arcade Fire’s Everything Now plays as Ellie Ross gives out party poppers. She has crafted a wonderful one-woman comedy where she plays a host of believable and multi-dimensional characters as a supporting cast to her narrator, Annie. Annie is offered £150,000 by her parents if she gets married within the year. Without a boyfriend, she decides to con them out of the money by marrying her best friend. For the most part, Ross switches seamlessly between characters during conversations and paints a picture of Annie’s world and the wedding madness she throws herself into. The plot races along. This feels like a TV comedy drama (a la Fleabag) despite the fact Ross is playing every character.  

Ross is clearly both a trained actor and comedian. Her script is the work of a skilled comedy writer. It’s well-rehearsed, very well delivered. The jokes dress the piece wonderfully. She puts into words our modern contradictions around the institution of marriage and speaks to our times, speaking particularly to artsy feminist millennials who have been labelled ‘quirky’ by their more conventional loved ones. 

Mrs Gary Breath
Snug Bar at Assembly Roxy
16:40 
5 August – 31 August (not 18)