Cutting Off Kate Bush, Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, review: 'One-woman show lives up to its Kate expectations'

Didn’t nab a ticket for Kate Bush’s live shows? This one-woman piece might not exactly be a replacement, but it does make for a plucky, poignant tribute.

Fangirl Lucy Benson-Brown began working on it before the concerts were even announced, but this short piece is more than glorified karaoke.

She plays Cathy, a drifting 27-year-old, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s suicide. On discovering her mum’s old Kate Bush records, Cathy heads for a nervous breakdown - albeit one costumed and soundtracked by some of the greatest wild-woman pop songs ever written. This being a twenty-something’s crisis, she turns to her computer for a “deeper understanding”: the wailing, drinking and confessions all go up on YouTube.

Benson-Brown’s poshly stroppy angst at first seems indulgent, but she soon wins you over with a physically unabashed performance, in brassy dance routines that spring from a deep love of Kate Bush. Alongside archly self-deprecating anecdotes, there is also an intensity of loss and yearning for the past here, and a sense that only by delving into our darkest hour can we dance back towards the light.

To 25 August (gildedballoon.co.uk)