The curiously terse title Relay seems calibrated to deflect from the fact that this is the second solo Fringe show from Welsh comic Leila Navabi, whose 2023 debut Composition was billed in the more traditional way of having her name next to it in the title. Not that she’s hiding her involvement, more that she seems to be determinedly pushing the ‘theatre’ side of a somewhat generically ambiguous storytelling show that’s co-produced by Sherman Theatre.
I raise this because on the performance I saw it was the more traditional stand-up style bits at the beginning where Navabi seemed to struggle – the audience was supportive but she didn’t quite seem to know how to work them; she needs a bit more confidence in her material. I think she was thrown by the fact she began proceedings by accidentally falling into a bank of chairs, which was obviously unfortunate but also fundamentally amusing and surely something she could have had fun with.
But if the sense of nervousness never quite abates, it certainly diminishes, and Relay is basically lovely.
The Elan Isaac-directed show concerns Navabi and her partner – also a ‘brown’ female Welsh stand-up – and Navabi’s account of their efforts to conceive, a process that involved spending a lot of money at a fertility clinic before concluding they had no choice but to go for a rather more budget, rather more DIY option.
With a melodica strapped around her neck for virtually the entire show, Navabi delivers this as a mix of wryly self-deprecating spoken word anecdotes and a series of quavery electronic pop songs that are extremely sweet. As are the animated films and life sized cartoon cut outs of her nearest and dearest (by Elliott Ditton) that she uses as accompaniment.
The vulnerability that takes the edge off her stand up chops certainly helps us feel invested in her quest for conception, and I think in some ways it’s fair enough not to aggressively push Relay as a stand up show: it’s a great story worth sharing and once it locks in to the mains story there isn’t much deviation from it. And certainly if you’re interested in budget artificial insemination methods, I’d go as far as to say that a ticket to see this show is a very sound financial investment.
It’s a sweetly ramshackle affair and it is certainly possible that an overly polished peformance would take something away from it. But I think the boost of confidence that will hopefully come from growing audiences/bedding it in a bit/not falling it over should see Navabi’s Relay hit peak form before the end of the Fringe.
