Sarah Callaghan: a cut above her peers

Following on from her debut hour Elephant, Sarah Callaghan’s new show at the Pleasance Dome is entitled 24. At the start of the show, the 24-year-old Londoner assures the audience that it is not going to consist of narcissistic whinging about how hard it is to be a twentysomething, nor some sort of laboured Adele send up (of which there are many at the Fringe this year).

In fact, the title refers not to her age but to a 24-hour period in which she crafted a 10-step plan to change her life. Callaghan sends up the narcissism that’s so commonplace at the Fringe, rinsing the usual tropes in her furious, no-nonsense style. Performing with dizzying speed and precision, Callaghan balances her most brutal, scathing condemnations with an unending array of puns.

But the show also has a surprisingly romantic strain running through it, the 24-hour period mostly consisting of a day trip she and her ‘geezer’ took to Paris. These more sentimental moments add a new dimension to this rising star’s brazen persona, and build to a heart-warming ending that she delivers without losing any of her bite.

Christian Butler is a writer based in London.

Sarah Callaghan: 24 is at the Pleasance Dome until 28 August.