Words: Caitlin Todd

4 stars

Strobe lights flicker, beats pulse, and a young woman fights to hold onto herself in a world that won’t stop shifting. Isabella Gilbert’s PUMP is a fierce, magnetic dive into feminist coming-of-age through the charged atmosphere of nightclub culture. Blending monologue, dance, and song with unapologetic candour, this Fringe debut at Summerhall is a hidden late-night gem.

Following her show FLUSH, Gilbert returns with something rawer, more urgent. PUMP captures the adrenaline of the dance floor and the quieter moments of vulnerability beneath it: the anxiety of casting rooms, the code-switching of modern dating, and the unspoken solidarity in a glance exchanged across a crowded club that means, “Come to the bathroom with me!”

Gilbert moves seamlessly between narrative and movement, using clever audience interaction and deft time-jumps to immerse us in her world. The piece skips across memory and place with a frenetic energy that mirrors the chaos of nightlife. It’s a study in performance: the performance of the self, of desirability, of fitting in while trying to stand out.

PUMP
Tech Cube Zero at Summerhall
22:30
31st July- 11th August