Theatre                                                              by DAGAZ Productions                                 The Blue Room                                                 3^rd of February

Finally, yes, a show to point all mid-20 year olds in the direction we truly need: adulthood. And in only 45 minutes. Put down your self-help guides and Buzzfeed ‘listicles’, Sophie Joske is here to lead us through the mystifying world of becoming a true adult.

With a maniacal grin and impeccably grown-up attire, Joske takes us through each facet of proper adult behaviour – the workplace, social skills, dating – with flashbacks, flashcards and audience participation worthy of a positivity infomercial, possibly designed for recent Arts degree recipients.

Minimal staging, obviously budget props, and canned laugher give this show a home-grown, first time feel but there’s nothing inexperienced about Joske’s performance.  Well-paced jokes and punchy dialogue are delivered in an almost deliriously faux-nervous manner; a constant sense of anxiety and hysteria makes her performance more realistic and impossible not to laugh at.

In fact, most of the audience left their terribly adult glasses of wine untouched as they giggled and sniggered like children as Joske failed assessment after assessment by an omniscient and rather obtuse mechanical voice from the Mature Learning Academy. Growing increasingly more frantic and increasingly less clad (even her “innate attractiveness” was not left unexamined), the show culminated in Joske breaking down and chanting “I’m a big girl now” during the show’s one serious moment.

While it is a somewhat flippant piece about how to ‘be more functional’, the show is also woven with clever critique of mainstream modern adulthood, the apparent shallowness that passes for ‘acceptable’ as an adult, and how we’re all really stumbling about, not really getting there.

If you’re looking for more life lessons from Joske, you’ll have to catch her next time she’s around, or at various live comedy spots around Perth as all of her shows have already sold out. Rightly so; we’re all looking for a bit of guidance and Joske really delivers.

Become a Functional Adult in 45 Minutes runs until the of 7th February at The Blue Room. It’s unfortunately sold out, but you can still check it out in the Festival Guide here.