SUGAR

SUGAR is a very pink, very sweet, celebration of a performance, which beneath its sugary surface deals with important issues of anxiety, self esteem and the pressures faced by young women.

Central character Sugar (a picture perfect and delightful Claire Thomas), is feeling rejected, anxious and alone after a really disastrous party. She turns to the internet for help and finds “The Fixits”, a latter-day Spice Girls on steroids, who promise that they can fix any problem.

Through song from the strong voices of Mumma (Suzie “Hyclass" Tuialli) and Honey (Sinead O’Hara), sass and dance moves from Sherbet (Tinesha Sampi), unnerving acrobatics on silks from Jelly (Jordan Clark) and impressive hoops and trapeze from Floss (Jamee Campbell), Sugar is encouraged to believe in herself and to do what she loves.

Suffering a little from technical issues on opening night (tech time at Fringe World is limited and shows with acrobatic rigging would be particularly time poor), the linking between the story and ‘performance' felt a little disjointed. I am confident that this will improve as the run continues.

If you know a pre-teen or young teen girl, I would highly recommend taking her to this Girl Power show, where great messages about dealing with social media and societal pressure are almost literally sugar coated (there are lollipops for the audience). 

There are hopes to tour SUGAR to schools and I can see it being very successful - especially with young girls.

Kimberley Shaw