Marty Breen stars at the Edinburgh Fringe with 5* reviews

BITCH is a darkly theatrical cabaret-drag play, combining music, movement, and stand-up with an electrifying performance examining trauma, sexuality, and gender.

The performance begins with the bitch in question crashing an open mic night to perform disquieting and accusatory songs on the piano, intercut with stand-up comedy by, as we later learn, her ex-boyfriend. Each character is portrayed by writer/composer/performer/genius Marty Breen, who dons a backwards cap for the stand-up, and a pink lacy cape for the cabaret, the transformation aided by some lighting and makeup trickery which reveals a beard and bushy eyebrows under blue light, and eyeliner and lipstick under pink. They talk gender roles, questioning sexuality and gender identity, and everyday sexism.

BITCH does not shy away from making the audience feel uncomfortable. In fact, it relishes in it, baiting us into laughing at the stand-up before pulling the rug out from under us and letting our stomachs drop. Because he’s likeable. Charming. He laughed and we laughed along even when he said things that, upon reflection, clued us into his potential for violence far before any incident took place. And so the whole audience becomes complicit in the creation of a bitch, as trauma swirls around Breen’s character, reshaping their identity.