“a glorious tangle of laughs and lunacy, Amy Mason presents An eye-wateringly hilarious hour of storytelling“
****1/2
Usually, suggesting that a story has a ‘wobbly’ spine might be a bad thing. But Amy Mason’s choice of narrative anchor, namely 3 large and unexpected double-ended dildos, proves the perfect launch point for an hour of pure storytelling brilliance.
Mason slides onto the stage and immediately sets the scene- it’s been an odd time for our protagonist. She’s addicted to her phone, lost all her doors, has various mental illnesses that require various medications, and more recently, she’s been off them. This frames the central themes of the show: is Amy mad? Or is it the world that is mad? Do you know how mad you have to sound for the Great British National Health Service to send someone to your house these days? And is the internet the true source of all this madness? (Probably).
Mason captures the audience in a perfect balance somewhere between ‘look how mad I am’ (A late-night email to her psychiatrist is a particular moment of comically timed genius that nearly kills the woman in front of me) and ‘look how mad all of this is’ (Perhaps her cat is, in fact, a dog. Who is she, an insane person, to argue with an extremely sane mental health nurse?) The background to all of this is an evaluation of relationships in the digital age, and how communication divided by a glowing screen leaves room for all kinds of absurdity.
Woven seamlessly into the dildo dilemma are tales of her own sexuality, throwbacks to the highs and lows of indie sleaze (Lest we forget the great MDMA drought of 2009) and several wonderfully ludicrous side-quests involving stolen doors and guineapig codewords. Every single diversion is a hit that brings us in and out of ‘Dildo week’, further leading me to worry for the woman in the seat ahead trying to catch her breath between thigh slaps.
The writing is so water-tight that you get the sense that Mason couldn’t remove the humour from these silly scenarios if she tried. Like us, she is simply a bewildered bystander to the absurd chaos that surrounds her. Callbacks are plentiful and expertly blended into the narrative, delivered with a dry wit and knowing twinkle. Raw but without lapsing into self-pity even for a second, ‘Behold!’ is a glorious tangle of laughs and lunacy. An eye-wateringly hilarious hour of storytelling that earns a strong recommendation.
Amy Mason: Behold!
Pleasance Baby Grand
17:50 | 1st-25th
Amy Mason: Behold! ****1/2
Published on
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 
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