★★★
Written and performed by Elis Pear, Bitter Baby is a one-woman show about academia and sex work based on Pear’s real experiences. In 2020, Pear moves to the UK from Brazil to pursue a degree. But when COVID hits and leaves her with no financial support from the university, she turns to sex work to supplement her income. Upon finishing her degree, she struggles to get a job due to racism and prejudice at interviews, so ends up doing it for longer than she thought. After applying for over 300 roles, she finally gets a research job working at a university, but is blackmailed into quitting after someone threatens to expose her past.
Her character development is amazing, especially considering the show only lasts an hour. At first, she gives off “not like the other girls” vibes, acting morally superior to her clients and other girls who do the same work. Slowly, she realises how hypocritical and arrogant she has been, and delves deeper into her true feelings, showing a softer, more vulnerable side. She tells us how much she misses being back home, as she was much more confident and felt like she belonged. Here, she has been worn down by countless job applications where she has had to give an English version of her surname to even be considered for interviews, and turned down from roles because she isn’t native. As a result, she’s lost her spark. Pear portrays this brilliantly, and we really feel her pain.
While the story and acting is great, other elements of the show could be improved. Pear remains seated in a chair onstage for most of the performance, and it would benefit from having some movement, or even more props: the only one she uses is an iPad to show she is doing Zoom interviews.
The sound is unfortunately not as good as it could be. Sound bites are played of clients and friends talking, but they sound very stilted and unnatural. Some of the cues are missed, and Pear has to look offstage to prompt them, which is a bit distracting from the narrative. A smaller, more intimate venue would be more suitable for this show: the performer is somewhat lost in the grandeur of the venue, and it’s hard to hear her over the noisy music happening elsewhere.
Instead of speaking to HR about her experiences, she accidentally talks to a creative writing tutor, who recommends she writes an autobiography or makes a show about her life. When she pitches this to a TV executive, he tells her there are too many competing elements, and she should remove the parts where she talks about her autism. I disagree; all the concepts work well together and make the story more interesting. Her autism explains why she struggles to connect with others and doesn’t perform well in job interviews. Sharing her diagnosis is a vital step to her being vulnerable with herself and us. Bitter Baby has a powerful storyline, and with a little more work on the theatrical elements, it will be even more impactful.
Bitter Baby will be performed at Le Monde – Dirty Martini until 24 August as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Ellen Leslie
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.