EDINBURGH FRINGE 2024
REVIEW
SQUIDGE
Written & Performed
byTiggy Bayley
★★★★
Review Preview
The moment Bayley introduces Daisy, we begin to quickly understand the pain and confusion she's experiencing. Overconfident, perhaps Daisy uses this as an obvious mask to shield her emotions, unsure where they're going to land. And it is within this difficult time that Daisy is dealt a hand from fate, bringing Paddy, a young Irish traveller boy, into her life. Over this short time with Paddy, she's been able to learn more about the person she wants to become and how, by understanding Paddy and his experiences, she can somehow learn to understand Arthur's struggles.
This relationship between Arthur and Daisy is only explored with flashbacks and asides, with the playwright never giving too much away. The placing of the black, oversize jacket initially on a hanger, which is then looped on to a coat rack, seems a little overkill, but as the play progresses, I feel that there is much more significance to this jacket. This emotional connection to the jacket is felt in certain moments throughout the play, from anger as the jacket is thrown across the floor or how Daisy finds herself talking directly to it to moments where the jacket offers Daisy some much-needed comfort. There is something delicate and innocent about the way Daisy sometimes tugs on the corners of the jacket or how she wraps her arms around herself while wearing it that seems to offer something heartfelt.
Squidge is a remarkable, often hillerious, and heartwarming story about a woman trying to make sense of her world while trying to deal with a personal tragedy that has knocked her off her path. Bayley's writing is dark, honest, and deeply moving. Imagine Fleabag, but written by someone with a clearer, and more meaningful insight into the human condition allowing them to create a character who, you feel, is trying hard to find their purpose in life. One of the most valuable lessons Daisy shows us is that there is no set direction our lives should take; sometimes we have to embrace our pain and our circumstances to be better placed to make the right decisions. Ultimately, Daisy leaves us with a beautiful sense of hope—the type of hope that inspires you.