Jayde Adams is Jayded

The old cliché, ‘emotional rollercoaster’, just doesn’t quite cut it for Jayde Adams’ new show: this is a full-blown emotional fun fair, packed with heights, plummets, garish outfits, belted-out songs and great chunks of various movies. Or is that more of a circus? Anyway, jaded it definitely isn’t. You’ve never seen someone pack so much life into an hour.

Dressed as a copper-topped Forrest Gump, Adams emerges with the air of a subversive children’s entertainer, and proceeds to embark on one of the braver show beginnings – one of those lengthy reenactments which must baffle anyone watching who hasn’t seen the flick in question. But the real meat of Jayded is the increasingly popular comic working through her rogue’s gallery of friendships over the years, most of which appear to have gone horribly wrong.

Like a real venting friend, Adams veers from blaming herself to offering a furious middle finger to everyone concerned, which might be insufferably self-involved in other hands. Last year’s Best Newcomer nominee is a mighty heart-on-her-sleeve talent though, bursting into euphoric, cathartic song at various junctures, and revealing a genuinely jaw-dropping range. At one point she almost bursts into tears, too.

Come the big finale and you wouldn’t be at all surprised if—like the movie re-enactment she once performed in full at an East London party—the show massively overran, but no, this is a controlled explosion, even allowing for some mighty fine audience participation involving a big Gump-style suitcase of props, special effects, and a fan. She’ll pick up a lot of new ones this month too.