Phoebe (Eleanor May Blackburn) likes a list, to the point where there are lists about making lists, and another list about crossing off completed items on previous lists. In some ways, therefore, the show is a difficult watch, especially as some of the lists are over-ambitious, or otherwise don’t really follow all of the letters in the SMART acronym – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. As it isn’t possible to do all of the things she wants (or, apparently, needs) to do in a day, this causes inevitable self-induced frustration.
A Sudden, Disturbing To Do List. Photo credit: Shay Rowan
More care needed to be taken with regards to sightlines. Some of the action takes place on the floor, on a very large pink surface, which was more than a bit problematic for anyone not sat in the front row in a studio space without a rake. From where I was sat, parts of the show felt like a radio play. For instance, I only found out after the show that there was a duvet on stage, though I understood she was tucking herself in for the night from what she said. It’s also – but I think this is deliberate – not the easiest of narratives to navigate, as Phoebe sometimes creates so many lists so quickly that it’s all but impossible to keep up.
It was, at least, a highly energetic show – I wonder if the large electric fans in the room that the venue kept running throughout the performance were more for the performer than the audience – and there was a disarming and convincing honesty about the challenges Phoebe faces. Rather than presenting a ‘nobody cares’ attitude towards her relatives, there are multiple voicemails from her concerned mother, with an increasing level of frustration as none of them are returned and all she (the mother) wants to know is if Phoebe is okay.
Rather like certain comedians who talk so quickly that I couldn’t follow, Phoebe bared her soul with such rapidity that it was all a blur. Perhaps it is a play for our times though, given the sheer number of younger people struggling with psychological wellbeing.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Meet Phoebe: a journalist and the queen of lists. On her fridge, her whiteboard, all over her hands and… everywhere. One day a giant, fluffy monster appears under her duvet. Why then is she suddenly listening all the ways she might die?
Written and performed by Eleanor May Blackburn
A SUDDEN, DISTURBING TO DO LIST
Greenside @ George Street at the Edinburgh Fringe
11 to 23 August 2025
