UK comedian Kirsty Mann brings her one-woman show, Skeletons, to FRINGE WORLD 2024 for its Australian debut. In the performance, Mann describes a decade-long balancing act between her two careers, comedy and medicine, all while attempting to keep both spheres very clearly, almost aggressively, delineated.

Skeletons may be a one-woman piece, but Mann is effortless in her character work, sketching half a dozen distinct personalities through voice and mannerisms alone, fleshing them out further as and when required.

From the Irish best friend, perpetually a klutz one step from actual disaster, always ready for the next hare-brained adventure, to the workmate from that small village called Europe, who cannot keep a secret to save herself, and even to the small walk-on part of the patient recognising Mann from the local panto, all roles are wonderfully acted and feel very much lived in.

Just when it seems that Mann’s comedy and medical worlds will collide, that she has made her big break going viral on social media, and the entertainment world beckons, it’s 2020, and those opportunities are about to dry up. North London will need all the doctors it can get.

In a few short yet quite magnificent sentences, Mann takes the audience back to the worst of the pandemic, in one of the countries most affected. It’s grim, but it’s an integral and necessary part of the story she is telling. The sheer confidence to bring this awful global lived experience into a comedy. The utter talent to pull it off.

And through to the other side, so far. Mann extols that life is too short, to celebrate every day, and to say yes to every new hare-brained adventure, even if it’s a solo festival performance on the other side of the planet.

With Skeletons, Kirsty Mann reveals herself a consummate storyteller, bringing something quite special to Perth this season. A show to laugh with in the moment, a performance with depths to ponder over later, and a performer to watch into the future, hopefully to return to FRINGE WORLD next year.