ROSIE’S BRAIN
Hope Theatre
★★★★
“The story of her journey makes for a tender and funny insight into life”
Rosie’s Brain is contained in the head of singer-actor Evelyn Rose – although not without spillage. The ill-disciplined grey matter causes its owner-operator no end of bother – from facial twitches and dark thoughts about crushing babies, to her dealings with men.
Ahh, men. Her Mount Everest.
The musical of Rosie’s Brain was born during Covid. American Evelyn Rose found herself alone, wrestling with her conditions and a recent heartbreak. She threw herself into all manner of distractions, from yoga to dance, but was struck with a plan to mix her experiences of anxiety and OCD with her ear for a melody and her undoubted talent as a singer-songwriter.
She reached for a book How Musicals Work, gathered some like-minded fellow graduates from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and created a show that yearns to give her an easier life, but which profits creatively from the excruciating torments and social awkwardness that afflict her at every turn.
We meet Rosie, her alter-ego, in a floral onesie and chirpy backpack at just such a moment of crisis. (Spoiler alert – every moment is a moment of crisis.) First day of college and some clueless lad glances over.
Within two minutes, her brain has played out her life – they’ve met, dated, she’s made a terrible decision and now she’s trapped in a loveless marriage with a child on her knee. Best take a different route to class and avoid the calamity.
From there, puckish Rosie relays the deluge of anxieties that have accompanied her throughout her life – obsessive bath submersion, her chronic need to confess to a litany of non-crimes and, of course, boys.
With her twitches and that thing she does with her hands, it’s going to be tough out there.
One of her three therapists suggests confronting her anxieties head-on, so she throws herself into the world of saying yes. Which brings her to George, her first true love, who also has OCD. That’s a recipe for mutual understanding or chaos depending on the mood or appetites of the condition she calls the “freakin’ monster upstairs”.
It goes well. Then it doesn’t.
The story of her journey makes for a tender and funny insight into life coming to terms with a self-sabotaging mind. Into the mix, Rose throws some flowery and delicate songs accompanied by guitar and keyboard.
This sweet and uplifting snippet reminds us that quirks come in all shapes and flavours, and we’re all afflicted in different ways which only goes to show, ironically, that we’re not so very different after all.
Great fretwork.
ROSIE’S BRAIN
Hope Theatre
Reviewed on 5th February 2025
by Giles Broadbent
Previously reviewed at this venue:
PORT CITY SIGNATURE | ★★★½ | October 2024
THE LEAST WE COULD DO | ★★★★★ | October 2023
MIND FULL | ★★★ | March 2023
HEN | ★★★ | June 2022
100 PAINTINGS | ★★ | May 2022
FEVER PITCH | ★★★★ | September 2021
ROSIE’S BRAIN
ROSIE’S BRAIN
ROSIE’S BRAIN
