Review: COLOR INSIDE THE LINES, Flying Solo - Edinburgh Fringe (Online)

A chance encounter with a palm-reading drag queen, who tells her she will never find love, sets Jenny on the road to retracing her love life.  Back to high school and a matchmaking scheme that went horribly wrong and matched her with the biggest loser in school.  Was this just a cruel hoax?  What if he was her perfect match after all?  What happened to him? What can she do about it now?

Written, composed and performed by Jenny Stafford, Color Inside the Lines takes its title from the scantron matchmaking test she was given in high school, where you answer questions by colouring in the box and staying within the lines.

Stafford tells her story through dialogue and song, is consistently funny and has a good rapport with the audience.  Acting out parts of her story, she draws the audience in and once again we are all back in high school with her, the awkwardness and the insecurities fresh in our minds.

The social hierarchy of the drama club, the prom, the high school crushes no one ever did anything about, and the awkward situations that occurred with boys and then were never talked about again (“boys that I erased”) Stafford tells us, are all discussed in detail.

The moral of the story is that you should never be afraid to colour outside the lines.  To not care what others think of you, to not miss out on what could have been.  Don’t be proud, don’t be scared and most importantly, learn to love yourself.

We all have questions about life, love and loss and we shouldn’t be afraid to experience whatever life throws at us!

An emotional, compelling and comic piece, not to be missed.

**** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Rachel Louise Martin

Color Inside the Lines is available on Fringe Online.