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Jessica Durand: Over the Top review

The statement "there is a fine line between genius and insanity" has all but been sanctified by Jessica Durand and her Edinburgh Fringe show Over the Top. Directed by Rowan Ellis (hi Rowan I love your essays) Over the Top is a deeply absurd one-woman show that follows Jessica in a WWI-era Downton Abbey fanfiction of her own making. 

Over the Top is the kind of project that could only be devised by the neurodiverse. It feels very much of this era, and I am sure it will resonate with the right niche crowd. Jessica documents aspects of her life such as her forays into the worlds of Wattpad and AO3, her shared birthday with Obama, and her unhealthy obsession with Thomas Barrow, Downton Abbey's very own gay butler. The chaotic world Jessica brings us into is not just that of her own life, but the fanfiction she has devised. It sees her as a humble maid at Downton, who then goes to the WWI front line in order to serve as a nurse. 

But in case you were concerned, the mental illness does not stop there. Durand flits in and out of character in order offer the audience various and, on occasion, surprisingly informative tit bits. I can now safely say I am more educated on blood transfusions, as well as Durand's psychosexual dom/sub masochistic fantasies involving Miss Trunchbull AND Nanny McPhee. It is of course later revealed that Miss Trunchbull and Nanny McPhee are working for the Germans - because of course they are - solely to get at Durand. And the music of Enya plays... it is at this point yet unclear if I am suffering from a stroke. 

Over the Top features the kind chaotic creativity usually only found within a Youtube video. There are various well edited video clips, that are for me the personal highlight. It is nice to feel a sense of community - or perhaps shared trauma? - by bringing a distinctly online feeling humour to an in person show. Though you will undoubtedly leave wondering if everyone should have just stayed at home. Home is safe and warm and has snacks.

All that being said, this chaotic mosaic of a show is a fun way to spend sixty minutes - and let me be clear I had so much fun. I would really like to see Durand lean into an even more melodramatic (or over the top) performance - I do believe she could somehow be even more unchained than she already is. It is queer (in both senses of the word), surreal, packed with laugh-out-loud hilarity... as well as mildly headache inducing - perhaps this generation's answer to The House of Leaves?

While certainly an acquired taste, Over the Top is deeply funny catnip for the chronically online. If you are a “manic pixie dream girl” like Durand this show is absolutely for you, and if you have no idea what that means... stay at home and save your sanity. ★★★★☆? or perhaps one milky way (the chocolate bar) out of five stars. A weird rating befitting a weird show. 


Thank you to Jessica Durand for inviting me. Tickets were provided free of charge and I was given full control over the content of the review.

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