Jessica Fostekew: Moving

Jessica Fostekew has come on since her debut three Fringes ago, which was a solid enough start as it was. Unfortunately, she has not progressed enough to make 'Moving' stretch to fit the full 60 minutes, but she impresses all the same.

Two-thirds of the show is tightly bonded to her simple theme of moving in with her boyfriend. Fostekew plays out the ensuing lifestyle change with lots of colour and detail, particularly about his hoarder tendencies that, much to her chagrin, might make him more attractive to media coverage than her showbiz career. Tales of her house shares, as a student and otherwise, cleanly dovetail with the central conceit. Perhaps it was her wish to remain truthful that saw Fostekew pad out 15-20 minutes of her set with weaker routines whose subject matter jarred, rather than segue into some general observational material common to the communal living experience.

So close is she to a complete and consummate set, Fostekew gets the benefit of the doubt here and certainly the approval of the punters in her Free Fringe venue. Her rather partisan closing plug for the Free Fringe, fabulous though the event is, rankles slightly and she rather manipulates the audience in setting an appropriate level of donation, but her assessment of her worth comes from a pretty honest place. She would probably give herself four stars, and I would agree.