★★★★★ A Hilarious &Vulnerable Love Letter to the Chaos of Early Motherhood
Show: Milkdrunk: Written & Performed by Cathleen O’Malley
Venue: theSpace @Symposium Hall (7th - 15th Aug, 11:05)
Let’s be honest: there is no shortage of comedy shows about having kids. Most of the time people play it safe with nice little jokes about sleep deprivation and messy living rooms. In Milkdrunk, Cathleen O’Malley completely skips the polished, picture-perfect version of early parenting and dives straight into the messy, hilarious, and utterly terrifying reality of a baby’s first year. Written and performed with brilliant precision, this isn't just another show about having a baby; it is an unfiltered, incredibly cathartic story about survival, losing your mind, and finding joy in the midst of the chaos. Armed with the simplest setup possible, a single chair on an otherwise empty stage, O’Malley proves she doesn’t need big sets or flashy props to command a room. She uses that chair brilliantly, pairing it with incredible physical comedy and overtly theatrical facial expressions. Her performance feels completely immediate and personal: she speaks directly to the crowd, looking you dead in the eye and making you feel like you’re going through the whole wild journey right alongside her.
She captures the sudden shock of motherhood with total vulnerability: that moment your identity and routine disappear, swallowed whole by a tiny, beautiful yet unrelenting human. Her comedic instincts are effortless as she pokes fun at the modern yummy mummy culture, taking on everything from stacks of baby manuals and passive-aggressive mummy-and-me groups to lactation consultants and well-meaning family advice.
The absolute standout moment is the room’s collective, visceral understanding of the dreaded sleep regression, when the brief bliss of a good night’s sleep shatters into pure madness.
Beneath those belly laughs, O’Malley grounds the show with real heart, navigating how relationships shift into battle-worn co-captains alongside the fierce bond that forms with your baby.
As a mum in the audience, this hits right where it counts. The first year of parenting is a bizarre mix of magical and horrifically difficult, and O’Malley delivers her personal story with brutal honesty and compassion. It embraces the messy, imperfect, and unapologetic reality of raising a tiny human, making Milkdrunk relatable, intriguing, and the exact piece of outrageously honest group therapy we all need after surviving year one.
Reviewed by Lissy Dutch
Co-Creator, Writer & Co-Host, The Edinburgh Society of Unapologetically Imperfect Mothers Podcast
Email: edinburghsocietymothers@gmail.com
Website: https://www.edinburghsocietyofunapologeticallyimperfectmothers.com/
★★★★★ Phenomenal, Powerful and Utterly Hilarious!
Show: Millicent Sarre is Too Tired to Smash (Patriarchy)
Venue: Assembly Roxy: Downstairs (5th–30th August 15:50)
From the very first note struck on the keyboard, award-winning cabaret artist Millicent Sarre transforms the room into a space that feels safe, welcoming and deeply unified. Making her Edinburgh Fringe debut, Sarre brings her original songs and powerhouse vocals to the stage in a show that hits with the perfect balance of laugh-out-loud comedy and sharp emotional truth.
At its core, Too Tired to Smash (Patriarchy) is a rally-cry for anyone running on empty in a world that continuously demands more. Sarre brilliantly tackles the overwhelming mental load of modern life; navigating everything from social media comparison traps to an increasingly unhinged political climate. She speaks directly to the exhausted feminist inside us all, capturing that precise middle ground between fierce determination and absolute burnout.
What makes the show so impressive is its delicate tonal balance. Despite wrestling with heavy themes, Sarre’s songwriting is lighthearted, witty, and razor-sharp. Her stage presence is electric, seamlessly shifting from outrageously relatable comedy to moments of raw vulnerability. Despite not having children yet herself, her connection to the realities of motherhood shines through as a particularly poignant highlight; her song & The Final Frontier of Feminism & brilliantly exposes the absurd double standards women face. She captures perfectly the cognitive and emotional burden of managing the family admin and carrying the invisible load of keeping track of everything from birthdays to allergies. I was ready to jump out of my seat when she anthemised the phrase “mothers are expected to sacrifice their souls to keep their children happy while fathers are praised for changing one single nappy”.
Brutally honest, deeply emotional, and utterly hilarious, the entire performance feels remarkably slick and polished. I laughed, I cried, I felt completely seen and I left the venue desperately wanting more, so much so that I am already prepping my friends for a sing-a-long using her album on Spotify.
An absolute must-see at this year’s Fringe.
Reviewed by Lissy Dutch
Co-Creator, Writer & Co-Host, The Edinburgh Society of Unapologetically Imperfect Mothers Podcast
Email: edinburghsocietymothers@gmail.com
Website: https://www.edinburghsocietyofunapologeticallyimperfectmothers.com/