Review – Abdicating Adulthood

Nikki Britton feels as if her life is on rails. All her friends are settling in for the long haul, getting married and having children, and they’re expecting her to follow suit. Meanwhile, the Millennials are so keen to grow up they’re learning to grind each other on the dance floor before they’re through Year 7. Everyone is in a rush to grow up and Britton is having none of it. She’s declaring war on cynicism, “shitting love at you and throwing bombs of joy!”.

Britton is at her funniest when she’s playing the characters in her anecdotes. Her impersonation of the woman who won’t sell her champagne at the bottle-shop, or the repressed Christian ex-boyfriend who ejaculates out the window, are highlights of the show. Equally charming is her reenactment of her mum enjoying the sensation of a gentle (and quite literal) tea-bagging.

Britton is telling a familiar story, though, and there isn’t a lot to make it stand out. She gives us jokes about hipsters being jaded fashion-hacks, and the shorts kids wear being too short – jokes that you’ve probably heard a few times before. But the show works well when it’s running on enthusiasm and honesty, and Britton is able to gives us those qualities in spades.