Nat Luurtsema: In My Head I'm A Hero

★★★

archive review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes

By Catherine Sylvain

Published 17 Aug 2010

100487 original

Nat Luurtsema's In My Head I'm A Hero may be structured around her dreams of have-a-go-heroics but it's her deviations from this topic that turn out to be the most intriguing part of the show.

Luurtsema initially appears somewhat mumsy and nosy as she ushers everyone into the venue before declaring that she loves catastrophes because of the opportunities they offer to talk to strangers. She describes picking up tips from television coverage of natural disasters and is all too eager to help in any potential bus crashes. Of course there's something dark in this desire but Luurtsema never seems anything but innocently and charmingly enthused by the idea. It's a gently amusing tendency but the show only really picks up when Luurtsema describes her lonely schooldays at a Masonic private school, with an unnerving video of one of her school "drills" being the real centrepiece of the set. It's like something out of North Korea and Luurtsema is worth seeing for this alone.

Later Luurtsema gives an upbeat account of her struggle with anorexia and her experience of being sectioned, but she never presents the issue as anything more than a bit of teenage goofiness. The problem with her act is the gulf between her darker material and the 'oh silly me' manner in which she delivers it. She has certainly had an interesting upbringing, but it's only patchily fitted into the theme of the show and in the end obliterates its coherence. In the end, it's Luurtsema's confessional material, rather than her superhero daydreams, that shines.