Nina Conti: Dolly Mixtures

Nina Conti’s recent BBC Four documentaries used her ventriloquism for some startling and touching self-analysis. Dolly Mixtures continues in this vein, bringing to life new characters based on people from her past or aspects of her personality.

This means that Monk the monkey, her partner of over a decade, makes only a fleeting appearance. More explicitly playing Conti’s id than ever before, the cheeky chimp proves a natural compere, loosening up the audience with his blunt jibes. Yet soon he’s back in his bag and it’s time to meet the new cast.

Dolly Mixtures is commendably ambitious. A more versatile and skilled ventriloquist than her years with Monk would suggest, seeing Conti stretch herself is one of the great pleasures of the show. Occasionally riotously funny and imaginative, it is fun meeting the new faces. That said, some characters are underdeveloped and too much time is spent simply playing with Conti’s new toys.

Indeed, while Monk looks more like a teddy bear than a mannequin, many of the new puppets have an ugly joke-shop aesthetic that makes them hard to like. Also the psychological themes often have to be explained rather than revealed. Yet much as Conti has always disguised dark humour with a sunny persona, Dolly Mixture’s sombre moments have a way of sneaking up on you.

Dolly Mixtures isn’t a triumph, but fans will love its balance of sweet and bitter moments. Most exciting is the sense that Conti has finally found her own voice.