Words: Kiera Harper
Image: Daniel Marks
4 Stars
My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me on Instagram is a deeply funny, moving car journey from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands to find joy.
The audience is pulled into the story immediately with writer and performer Yoz Mensch already on stage waiting for her Pa and ready to take us on their journey. The show familiarises us with Yoz, who’s at the beginning of her transition, and her grandpa, who she portrays using physical comedy and includes real Instagram stories from the trip played throughout.
My Grandpa unpacks the expectations we’re anticipated to uphold around different people and the way we act in accordance with them, even when we don’t want to. Due to these expectations, we feel Yoz’s hidden identity weighing on them. Hidden identity is the underlying thread of this story for not only Yoz but her grandpa too, who she knows little about apart from the answers she’s given to her sporadic questions, like who would play Pa in a film of his life.
We grieve this generational divide along with Yoz when they open the glove compartment to speak directly to the audience, lightly letting us know that the show isn’t going to end the way we think and some interactions aren’t entirely true, as in reality there was a lot of silence on the car journey apart from Chappell Roan playing low on the radio. These moments of reflection were a necessary interlude and one or two more of them would pull the audience even further into the show. This deep vulnerability is perfectly balanced by the joyous comedy Yoz embraces while telling the story from her Pa nearly driving into pedestrians to a Pink Pony Club sing-along.
My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me on Instagram is an experience filled with queer joy, humanity and poignant silliness that you’ll never want to end.
My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me on Instagram
Jelly Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate
20:25
5th – 30th August (no performances on the 18th)