Floozy - Amy Tofte

Floozy is one of those plays that keeps the audience guessing, but not always in a good way. Starting off as a smart sassy comedy drama about two 30-something women flat-sharing after one catches her boyfriend getting more than a little pally with a property developer (what no hi-rise gag?).

The women are Bista (Alejandra Bursik-Cervantes) a rampant goddess of sex, and Victoria (Cady Zucherman) as cold as the ice cream she comfort eats with a "spoon the size of her face". Into this frictional mix comes Kevion (Michael Pignatelli) who blandly sleeps with both women behind each others back and then imploring them to share when caught out.

Okay. The story stArts straight away, characters are solidly created in seconds and with a minimum of exposition we are launched into a number of very funny scenes, many of them powered along by Michael Pignatelli's razor sharp timing that had the audience laughing at lines perhaps a little harder than the material deserved.

Then came the second act and here it's as though the writer , Amy Tofte, realised that her play wasn't edgy enough for Ed-Fringe and whacked in a sudden unexpected dollop of farce. Then when this looked the wrong way to go she changed tack again offering up blood and gore to sacrifice on the alter of cutting edge script writing.

Ultimately act 3 sees some of the cast return as ghosts, which is a shame as there sexually bland spectral performances aren't nearly as interesting as their earthly versions.

Despite all of that, for me, this is so far the best play I have seen at the Fringe. It has some great lines and Amy has created some very believable characters that combined to keep me hooked and often on the edge of my seat. Kudos to one actress whose blood kurdling scream actually did send shivers down my spine.

Id recommend anyone go see this play, but I hope once the Fringe is over the writer takes another look at the third act.

One last comment; the Baddy in this play didn't work for me at all. He was tall and that seemed to be used to indicate scary. It didn't and he wasn't all that comfortable in the part either. Sometimes small people can be scary too and a script like this didn't need the gimmick of a Jaws type character being menacing as though suddenly we were in panto land.

That aside, a play that's well worth seeing and shows the Fringe that you don't need a big venue or star names to create something good.