CityLife

Nancy With a Why

NANCY With a Why is a one-woman cabaret pastiche, written and performed by Sarah Ashton.

This comedic turn introduces Nancy, an American singer on a comeback tour of the UK.

Between renditions of some classic bitter love songs, Nancy relates to her audience in Man-Chest-Hair the story of her life, from her wedding vows to her break up.

At one point Nancy steps into the audience to intensely croon REM’s Everybody Hurts, staring soulfully into eyes and touching shoulders as she ‘shares her pain’.

The result was a palpable wriggle of uncomfortable anticipation as a fascinated room watched Nancy’s car crash meltdown.

It was a 'thank God that’s not me moment', as one poor soul was dragged up to hug Nancy, and repeatedly sung at to ‘hold on, hold on, HOLD ON.’

This was Sarah Ashton’s debut as Nancy, and she gave an impressively captivating performance.

Right from the start she engaged the audience in her character and cleverly utilised song lyrics to highlight Nancy’s journey.

As a performance piece it could probably benefit from briefer singing sequences and more dialogue, but Sarah Ashton shows impressive potential and will definitely be one to watch.

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