★★★★★
First and foremost, my words cannot do justice nor explain how sensational Olivia Ormond’s one-woman Edinburgh Fringe Show, Call Me Crazy, truly is—but I will give it a go!
Ormond plays an unreliable narrator who the audience gets to explore from the inside out after the medical system fails to find the cause behind her long-term pain—let alone acknowledge that the pain exists. The show itself is based off of Ormond’s own battle with chronic pain and her own experiences with medical gaslighting. So, from the outset this is a highly current and engaging concept.
Is she crazy or is she the most sane person that you know? This is guaranteed to be the question on your mind before, during but hopefully not after the show. Now, you may think that she actually is crazy, at first, due to the fact that Ormond is practically screaming “Am I Crazy?” at you from the get go.
However, when we see her get asked to rate her pain (as if it doesn’t exist) by male (and some female) health professionals, get sent home without any answers by male health professionals and get judged for attempting to take control of her own medical choices by male health professionals, it becomes clear that she is not crazy and is in fact one of the most sane people that we know—trying to fight against a sexist medical system that is determined to dismiss and undermine women’s health problems.
The one-hour show is set solely in a doctor’s waiting room, with the only prop being a single chair—which has its fair share of dramatic moments too, believe me! The minimalist set is extremely clever: it helps establish and somewhat symbolise the isolated and confused state of mind of a woman who is in the grip of a mental breakdown.
The dialogue and wit is equally faultless. Lines such as “doctors love numbers; they get off on them” and her reference to a man’s flaccid penis as being a “soft serve ice cream”, proves that Ormond pushes the boundaries even further than many of her contemporaries. She isn’t saying things just to shock, you can tell she’s saying it because it’s something she relishes in. Even her brutally honest commentary on motherhood and the relationship she has with her own mother is dissected under a spotlight full of satire and sarcasm—you will not even feel guilty about laughing.
Ormond’s dry wit, her passion, her desire to be heard along with her fierce performance skills and sensational writing are all utterly impeccable and make this a truly unmissable show. People of all gender identities must watch Call Me Crazy. If they cannot see themselves in the narrator, then they will have their eyes widened—for the better.
Finally, to Olivia Ormond—thank you for writing and performing Call Me Crazy. Never stop shouting loud for all to hear and never let anyone call you crazy again—this show has been likened to Fleabag, but in my opinion, it’s a little bit better!
Olivia Ormond’s Call Me Crazy will run until 9 August at the Clover Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Cory Gourley
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