A curious mixture of charming and silly, prim and proper, with a dose of certificate 15 activity thrown in for good measure, Jessica Barton brings us Mary Floppins in Dirty Work. She looks, sounds and acts a lot like the real Mary Poppins, but do not be fooled, Floppins has an eye for cleanliness and she knows how to get others, specifically men, to do the cleaning for her.

Barton has chosen to use a clowning method that is virtually silent to communicate her messages across the just about 55 minutes she entertains her audience for. Much is made of seemingly mundane chores and household tasks, such as folding sheets, assessing laundry for cleanliness and tidying up. Somehow, Barton makes all of these tasks much funnier than they should be. She is witty, charming and has the most fantastic array of facial expressions and hand gestures; communicating with one twitch of the eye or flick of the wrist more than many comedians can do with a whole joke set up.

Floppins is warm, has a twinkle in her eye, but is also not about to suffer fools gladly and she soon has her team of exclusively male volunteers tidying for her, dancing her choreography and proudly queuing up for tiny star stickers for doing their bit well.

There’s a message in there somewhere about women usually doing the dirty work, about a relationship gone wrong, potentially even domestic violence or controlling behaviour, but it is all very lightly touched on, so much so that its almost too hard to spot.

Floppins is also occasionally crass, she attempts to do things that are unmentionable in a review with various domestic implements and she clearly has a penchant for a man wielding a cleaning product – but it’s not too much and is all done with a wink, a nod, an eye roll and an apologetic smile – so the action is funny, not offensive.

Barton has a truly fantastic voice and can clearly dance too, in this short show the audience are allowed only brief glimpses of this, but more, much more of this side of Barton would be a huge plus. This is funny, smart, engaging clowning – slightly madcap and thematically maybe a little bit loose, but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

Runs until 24th August

The Reviews Hub Star Rating

70%

Clever adult clowning