You Fancy Yourself

Maja Ardal is a Canadian-Icelandic performer and playwright. Her semi-autobiographical solo show sees her telling the story of Elsa, a young Icelandic girl who moves with her parents to Edinburgh in the fifties and has to fit in at a new school in a grey, alien city.

Mary Francis Moore’s production is simply staged and the only prop is a wooden chest in the centre of the floor, yet Ardal creates a complete and captivating world. Dressed in a child’s pinafore, she breathes life into the many characters that Elsa encounters – the timid girl who lives upstairs and with whom she becomes close friends, the snotty-nosed boy who doesn’t pay attention in class, the strict but ultimately kind-hearted school teacher, Miss Campbell, and the woman with the fearsome Scottish growl who sweeps the stairs.

Ardal fully captures the richness of a child’s imagination, and the way that children behave towards one another – the little jealousies, the flowering dreams, and the deep need to fit in and be seen to be part of the right group. Elsa is tempted to betray her best friend but love and loyalty win the day in a delightful and uplifting way.