Review: Julie Flower: Grandma's Shop

Eccentric, sentimental, and quietly corny, Julie Flower takes her audience on a whistlestop, whiplash tour of a life thoroughly well lived. Not her own, but a grandmother named Hilda’s.

Set in a chaotic vintage clothes shop in the heart of post-punk Sheffield, Julie’s grandmother and her shop became synonymous with the 80s scene of eccentricity and the new era of expression through clothes. With many cats to feed from her profits, the shop transcended time from 60s hippy fashion to counter-culture essentials.

When the Guardian approached Hilda with a view to unearthing the woman dressing a generation, the article produced was to become a token of nostalgia fuelling Julie to dig deeper. The show is a homage to the enigmatic woman Julie knew, portraying her hunt for ancestral details and clues that might help to reveal more secrets about the woman unwittingly cherished as a true punk rocker.

Full of 80s references and pre-millennium anecdotes, this show risks alienating a younger audience, with many laughs procured by a fourth-wall-breaking complaint about Izal toilet paper. However, despite the risk of a possible eye roll from the under 30s, this show exudes nostalgia and is a beating heart for the weird and wonderful.