Cal Wilson is ready to spill her guts on stage for a paying audience — a wonderful premise.
Cal was very excited at the lack of children in the front row, which provided the audience with just what tone to expect for the rest of the show. Apart from a lot of cat-centric content (A+), Wilson gives an insight into the power a parent has over their child, and why sometimes you can deceive them, especially when it comes to bad words.
‘Things I’ve Never Said’ deals with the whole spectrum of human condition — from analysing the anatomy of the word LUMP to a violent non-consensual experience she had as a teenager. The portion of the show discussing this assault was very graphic and not a positive experience for someone who has been through their own trauma — for this part of the show I’d caution anyone uncomfortable with this sort of content to avoid the show, I was shaken up for a few hours afterwards. To her credit, Cal did not use this theme as comedy, but instead as an investigation into the cop out the phrase ‘just a little fun’ has become.
The show isn’t all dark though. Cal is golden, energetically running through her life of conflict avoidance and how having her own child has cured parts of that, turning her into a mama lion ready to shout at any small human in the playground who upsets hers, or even take on a fully grown emu (she would lose, emu’s are satanic).
Things I’ve Never Said takes a lighthearted look at the darker parts of life, showing you that there’s always something to laugh at or with, and also reminding a room full of adults that Enid Blyton was actually a terribly problematic author. She’ll make you laugh til it hurts and feel empathy for your parents and all the work they did to educate you, two wonderful things to take away from a show.
– Jasmin
Jasmin Ashton is a designer, marketer and freelance writer from Melbourne who has a lot of feelings about everything. Find them at @Jasmanna.
Things I’ve Never Said runs until April 23rd at the Town Hall. Purchase tickets now.
The venue is accessible.
Read The Plus Ones’ guide to MICF 2017, and visit often to see all our reviews.
