Underbelly, Bristo Square, Edinburgh – until 29 August 2022
Guest reviewer: Zahid Fayyaz
This is a new production from Queen of Cups, a young female-led and London-based theatre company. This one-woman play follows young teacher Evie and her particularly bad day at school, from coming in with a hangover to a hectic parent evening.
The monologue performance, together with the use of projections and props, is extremely entertaining and very funny. With plenty of pointed barbs about the education system along the way, this certainty feels like a real-life experience of working in a school. The comedy and cultural references are hilarious and spot-on, with the musical cues working extremely well.
There are a couple of teething issues, though these are likely to resolve themselves over the course of the run. However, the serious bits, whilst good in isolation, also feel a little out of the blue tonally, and it would perhaps be more coherent if the audience was given more of a clue as to how dark things eventually get. Overall though, the quality of the rest of the show makes up for this.
This show is well worth a watch for those in Edinburgh for the festival. Hopefully it will have a longer life past this as well, as it’s a fun and thought-provoking show, which deserves to be seen by a whole load of people.
Bad Teacher runs through 29 August 2022.
