Emma Sidi is back this year at the Edinburgh Fringe with a fabulously fresh new show, Telenovela, a dramatic-beyond-reason Spanish-language soap opera comedy that incorporates Mexican passion, television obsession and the most crucial element, interpretative dance.
Her character comedy this year is bonkers, unique and her confidence is fierce. Interacting with the audience in a way that evokes her versatility, using them as proxies to fuel the Spanish drama, her livewire eccentricity excretes more snorting and guffawing in that one room than has been heard in a long time.
Vanessa, a recovering drug addict, from such drugs as Tixylix and Calpol, recounts her story of murder, revenge, love, passion and rehab. Sidi gets this character to engage with her audience, blurring soap drama detachments and also introduces us to another character, Britta. This TV addict who has lived in so many EU countries that her accent is impossibly repugnant to decipher attempts her hand at the news, which has funny bouts when realising that she has completely ruined her prioritising of the news.
Refreshingly novel, Emma Sidi’s Telenovela is fantastically written and developed material, which should be on your Fringe to do list. It would hardly surprise if this inventive lass takes away some awards this Fringe 2016.