**** (4 stars)
“Delightful”
Another queer love story! No-one dies at the end! Hoorah!!
There are a lot of flowers – we are offered one as we enter the bijou theatre: I’m sorry to have to leave it behind when I exit, but sadly it would not survive a busy day in Edinburgh in August…
The beauty of flowers, the thought behind a gift of flowers, the Victorian secret language of flowers all play a part in this delightful lesbian romance: and there’s wonderful baking, too!
Ophelia and Zaria have a flower shop: they are both stressing about the fantastic opportunity they have. A friend who is marrying an amazingly wealthy man has asked them to do her wedding bouquet. If they can make a good impression, their fortunes could be made…but Ophelia can’t keep her mind on creating the perfect bouquet: she keeps being distracted by the thought of Dera, a local baker and newcomer to the area, whose wonderful cheesecakes and pastries are simply heavenly.
If the truth be told, though, it’s not the pastries but Dera herself who has Ophelia in a constant daydream. It’s patently obvious how much she fancies the baker, but she’s incapable of saying anything…. Despite Zaria’s encouragement, she is silent: all she can do is make Dera a new bouquet every day and pretend that it’s one that didn’t sell the previous day.
Dera appears, bearing a box of Ophelia’s favourite raspberry cheesecake that somehow ‘didn’t get sold yesterday’ and it’s instantly clear to everyone that Dera is equally besotted with Ophelia, and just as incapable of saying so. Will the two ever get together? Will Zaria ever realise her secret dream of going to Paris? Will the perfect wedding bouquet ever get made?
The awkwardness of seemingly unrequited love, the difficulty of confessing feelings when I don’t think the beloved could possibly love such an unloveable person as myself, the frustration of a friend to whom it’s perfectly obvious that there’s a strong current of feeling between the two of you: all these are perfectly portrayed in this charming comedy. It also underlines the need for clear communication, which has been a theme in a number of shows in this year’s Fringe.
Manon Lavastre’s Ophelia shines as brightly as her strawberry-coloured hair. Chloe Horne’s gentle, supportive, silently dreaming Zaria is the perfect bestie. CJ Adebayo Omoaka is wonderful in her exuberant clumsiness. The actors’ energy and enthusiasm are a joy to watch, and the songs that punctuate the action perfectly chosen. It’s unfortunate that the sight lines in the little theatre are poor, meaning that those not on the front row miss out on much of the action: and sometimes the smallness of the room means the actors forget to project their voices and lines are not heard. Despite this, the show is charming, a wonderfully colourful and heartwarming antidote to the gloom and doom that threaten to engulf us if we are not careful.
Blooming, Fern Studio at Greenside @George Street (Venue 236) for more information go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/blooming
ScotsGay Arts 