Weather Girl ★★★★ Soho Theatre | Mar 5 - Apr 25, 2025


Stacey is in crisis! The popular weather girl who gushes about high pressure systems drinks too much and is reporting on California wildfires which have killed a family in the neighbourhood from which she is broadcasting. Stacey's mother is a drug-addicted homeless person, and Stacey, herself, is facing a promotion to a place that is even hotter than her current home in California. Added onto these issues is a one-night stand with a man whose name she can't remember and whose car she crashes when she is drink-driving. It's truly a wonder that this weather reporter can still keep pretending that everything is under control. And then at last, she can't! Brian Watkins has written a very funny and very disturbing work about a self-obsessed and self-destructive young professional which is actually a commentary on the way the human race is destroying itself and its environment. Stacey's meltdown mirrors the plight of the planet, and as Stacey, Julia McDermott puts in a positively mesmerising performance. Watching her careen out of control is both frightening and fascinating. One can't look away. Just as we might want to avoid knowing about, or taking responsibility for, the destruction of the earth's ecological system, there is a part of us that might desperately like to avoid Stacey's chaos. But, this allegory is compellingly written and presented. All too often issue-based theatre is either annoyingly smug or dryly didactic as it preaches to the converted. Weather Girl is neither. It is dramatic and engrossing as it persuasively makes its point.

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Pamela Raith

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: 21 Dean St, London W1D 3NE, UK

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