Simon Ward reviews All These Pretty Things at the Etcetera Theatre

As we enter the small room above the Oxford Arms, Tracey Yarad is already in meditational pose, wrapped in a blanket and with Om Shanti on the screen behind her. We sense that she is gathering her energies for the show, and, as the evening unfolds, it becomes clear why she would need to muster all her resources. This is one of the most rawly personal pieces you are likely to encounter. Yarad has an easy Australian manner – you feel like she is really engaging you in conversation, even as she bursts into song, accompanying herself on the keyboard. But this also means that there are no holds barred – she does not flinch from bluntly sharing the intimate details of the life which took her from a blissful marriage in the house of her dreams to travelling halfway across the world to start again in New York.

With co-writer and director, Tessa Souter, Yarad has put together a show built around ten songs which she recorded as an album during the pandemic. They trace her story from first love to utter devastation when her husband of twenty-seven years decided to leave her for their teenage god-daughter. The songs are her way to chart a path out of that nadir to rebirth and re-emergence as a stronger version of herself. She acknowledges the help of her friends and family but the whole process must have been utterly soul-destroying. There is a short but heartrending clip of her playing the piano and simply weeping uncontrollably in the depths of her despair.

It seems churlish to criticise what is clearly such a deeply-felt and personal work. However, for me, the songs were not really strong enough to carry the show. They felt too similar to each other, and I didn’t find that any of them stood out or were memorable as I left the theatre. Moreover, the slideshow accompaniment was rather hit and miss. Most successful were the simple stills of family life – Yarad on her wedding day, or reclaiming the kitchen with her friends, or hanging out in New York. I am afraid that I was underwhelmed by the cartoonish images of rather generic lovers coming together in their ideal home.

Nonetheless, Yarad makes a great impression with her own style, charm and wit – she is undoubtedly an engaging, energetic and charismatic performer with an intensely emotional singing style. Showing as part of the Camden Fringe festival (running from 28th July until 24th August in various venues across London), this is exactly the kind of show that can be facilitated by a festival where audiences are curious to see new and different work. This piece seems so confessional and hard to bear, yet carries an uplifting message: there can be rebirth after all hope is apparently lost.

All These Pretty Things is running at the Etcetera Theatre, 265 Camden High Street, London NW1 7BU