Gobbess at Brighton Fringe Spiegeltent Bosco Thursday May 11th

Brighton Fringe has Gobbess listed as “A kaleidoscopic one-creature show merging the circus with storytelling. Poetry, aerial and dance combine to tell a story, 1 person's tale of rage and becoming.” And I’d say that’s a fairly accurate description of what I saw on this beautifully sunny early evening in May.

The “Gobbess” is writer, poet, performer, aerial and circus artist Naomi Wood. Naomi’s presence on arrival to the stage immediately captured the audience and their minds. Naomi set about storytelling to calming and soothing music that wouldn't be amiss whilst having a massage. And that kind of sets the tone for Naomi’s poetry as it has a certain refinement, a certain elegance as if floats across from the stage to the audience, but in equal measures it has the teeth and bite to cut through and shatter the peace and tranquillity as she tells stories of social norms, patriarchy and inequality. To audience applause Naomi delivers the killer line about the mother stage of this Gobbess, “I don’t know what it is I’m nurturing but I think it might be rage”.

Visually the show is quite something, mixing from on stage performance with great presence, to reciting poetic storytelling whilst performing smooth aerial dance with the aid of a suspended hoop. Effortlessly hanging from the hoop with relaxing sounds playing in the background, Naomi perfectly juxtaposes “people will not understand why you slept outside, had opinions and smashed the good china on the way out”.

There were times when the visuals were further enhanced from an open door. Naomi shares the notable line, “In every bar between here and utopia there’s a man telling a woman something she already knows but he’s making it real... clear... for her”, as she leans forward and a ray of perfectly timed sunlight shines across Naomi’s face as if to emphasize and place more importance on the words she says. I like to think the door staff left it slightly ajar on purpose, but who knows!

I came out of Gobbess on a sense of a high, a show for the Instagram age, modern references of current society “norms” and ills, Gobbess carries the punch! Between Naomi’s poetry, stories, visual and aerial performance, I can say that this was a captivating show. It moves with just enough pace, the poetry and storytelling is beautiful but has plenty of bite, it’s funny, it’s uplifting when it needs to be, it makes you think, and the aerial performance compliments and equally contrasts everything really well.

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A superb and unique show which comes highly recommended!

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www.instagram.com/iamnaomiwood/
​www.brightonfringe.org/