Review: Louise Atkinson: Mates

That title may sound ominous – not another improvised Friends show, surely – but, fear not, the effortlessly affable Louise Atkinson is here to talk friendship, something we perhaps take for granted, until it goes wrong. And then what? You don’t get Edinburgh break-up shows about good pals parting, when you think about it. And this isn’t one either, despite Atkinson enduring a couple of mate splits recently. 

In fact, she suggests friendship break-ups can be more traumatic than romantic ones. When people you usually lean on aren't there “you fall flat on your arse,” as her mate Steph put it. And that’s Steph’s strongest contribution, in truth; Atkinson’s best bud gets lots of airtime in Mates, but sadly her other antics aren’t quite as funny as they probably sounded on the page. 
Which is a shame, as Atkinson’s less scripted chat early on is so strong, the subsequent material often fails to live up to those expectations. It’s not bad, just fine, and thankfully the comic has charisma to burn, if also a tendency to randomly slip into silly voices. Which is odd given that she’s from Hull, and therefore blessed with one of the UK’s finest comedic accents. Southern stand-ups would kill for those vowels.

Crowd-work apart, Atkinson is arguably strongest when explaining the more serious stuff here, and it’s an interesting subject. Although one lingering question remains afterwards: what did happen with those now ex-friends, briefly mentioned in passing? It’s like there’s a whole other show bursting to get out.