Choreographer Natasha Gilmore is Artistic Director of Barrowland Ballet. Together with singer/theatre-maker Jude Williams, she has co-created an utter autobiographical delight of a show, based on their friendship. The title is a nod to the oversized statement necklaces that “ageing” women often start to wear; maybe as the antidote to becoming invisible, they suppose?
The duo eases us in gently. There are knowing in-jokes about the Fringe; performers hoping they’ll make this year’s Baby Reindeer, audiences wishing they’d gone to the Trav instead. Then comes mad-as-a-box-of-frogs dancing as they break the ice with warm jokes, before rewinding to key moments. A baby’s first birthday, derailed by the father walking out. Chemo, funerals and fertility tests are sprinkled in skilfully amongst sweetly simple bursts of song and dance, including their gorgeous cover of The Crystals’ Then He Kissed Me.
It makes perfect sense that Williams is also a humanist celebrant, marking other people’s big life milestones as the duo do here. Watching their female friendship seesaw as they take turns to prop each other up through life’s curveballs and shit sandwiches is an absolutely joyful, cockle-warming thing. Beautifully bittersweet, nuts and touching in equal measure.
Chunky Jewellery, Assembly Rooms, until 24 Aug (not 6, 12, 18, 19), 1.30pm