Ruby McCollister is one tragic girl. The raspy American actress brings her darkly entertaining one-woman show to the Scottish capital, exploring everything from addiction and ghosts to ‘being a cool girl’ and death. Frankly, it’s a bit of a marmite hour, peppered with lots of squealing, growling rock ’n roll singing intervals and cabaret-style numbers, all while a ghostly slideshow moves the story on in the background.
For the most part, the bizarreness of it all is charming – a credit to McCollister’s irresistible energy and sass. The story follows her unlikely childhood, which she largely spent in her father’s haunted theatre in downtown LA, becming obsessed with the glitz and glam of showbiz. Romanticising dead actresses and singers, she decided from a young age that if she was to live a life worth living, it would have to be a tragic life. Growing up, though – navigating the likes of weight loss and abusive boyfriends – she learned that there was a much darker side to being tragic (no shock there).
She’s ridiculously over the top and zealous while the story is so surreal in places that you can’t help but find it entertaining. Yet the brattiness of her character can get grating, and the humour – despite her best try to encourage us to join in with her quirky, high-pitched laughs – can sometimes feel surface-level. But she gets stronger as hour progressed, slipping into a more reflective, mature persona, and the hour ends on a high. It’s a lament on the passing of childhood, McCollister’s cutesy shell and growling song working as a compelling vehicle to comment on some really quite challenging subject matter.