Sweet Child of Mine

It's unfair to criticise the Fringe iteration of Bron Batten's Australian hit. Hugely flawed as it is, no blame can be laid at the feet of the creator nor, indeed, those of anyone else involved. Her father, who usually co-stars alongside her, withdrew his involvement at the 11th hour and has been replaced by a Scottish surrogate. Explanations for this turn of events are kept vague, but the charisatic old man clearly went through a great deal of turmoil in putting his personal needs over his daughter's career.

At first Batten seems to have overcome this setback, cheerfully embracing the ridiculous measures she's been forced to take, emphasising the amended show's bizarre conceit. The honesty of her father's reactions to her life and on-stage antics are what render the original show a deeply human testament to unconditional love. Video footage reveals that the man's pride in his daughter has long wrestled with a baffled indifference to her craft, and that 'performing' on stage with her has allowed him to gain a fuller understanding of who she is as a person.

Having an actor step in for her dad offers the star the opportunity to embark on a meta dialogue with herself and perhaps air feelings which she'd feel uncomfortable expressing to him directly. Instead, the replacement sticks rigidly to a weak comedy script, delivering someone else's lines in a pantomime fashion. Cues for pathos and examination of the father-daughter relationship are obviously present, but circumstance prevents Bron from acting upon them.