Emily Davis
Blodwen’s in Town
Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club, Elephant and Castle, London, UK
February 23,2023
Reviewed by Gavin Brock
Thursday evening saw the return of the loveable Blodwen to Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club, following her return from a several-week-long stint at last summer’s infamous Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Written and performed by Emily Davis, the show introduces us to Blodwen, a pixie-like Welsh character who hails from the village of Llanfairaron where there are more sheep than people. Between cheeky zingers such as “I’m like a road sign in Wales—I come in two languages,” Blodwen taught the audience to navigate the tricky pronunciation of Welsh consonants (“think of an angry goose”) and took us on her journey to the big smoke of London.
Blodwen’s in Town is a one-woman show that details Blodwen’s exploits as she uproots herself from her home village and navigates life in London. Think Tell Me on a Sunday delivered in a Welsh accent and with fewer problematic boyfriends.
Accompanied by Andy Campbell-Smith on piano, she performed very funny songs, including one about the characters with whom Blodwen winds up sharing a flat; their various personality quirks earn them the nicknames Cillit Bang, Mother Superior, and Chardonnay. A strong contender for the evening’s showstopper, however, was “A Simple Valley Song” from Jet Set Go! (Jake Brunger/Pippa Cleary), in which Blodwen narrates her complicated love life and recalls the downfall of each of her various romantic partners with comical wide-eyed innocence.
After finding love with Manuel in the big city (here delivering a belting performance of the Streisand hit “He Touched Me”), the show ventured into an unexpectedly funereal direction dealing with Blodwen learning of her father’s passing. This added an interesting tonal contrast to an otherwise relentlessly buoyant evening. Ultimately, Blodwen’s determination to remain upbeat won out. After all, she philosophizes, “if something bad happens to you, it reduces the likelihood of it ever happening again.” If the rationale for Blodwen’s optimism was unconvincing, it was smartly underlined with a jolly rendition of the darkly comic Tom Lehrer number “We’ll All Go Together When We Go,” about looking on the bright side of an oncoming nuclear apocalypse.
Emily Davis handled the comedy well and delivered the tightest parts of the script with effortless confidence. Her secret weapon, however, was unquestionably her voice. Wisely saving her powerhouse belt for the climaxes of her songs, Emily delivered a sterling job on an eclectic selection of musical numbers, each one of which drew enthusiastic reception from the audience.
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But then, what’s not to love about an evening’s entertainment whose take-home message is: “Take the National Express, because you never know where you might end up.” Having seen how Blodwen has blossomed since her experience at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, it’s a motto that has a sincere ring of truth.
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