Image by Hannah Brackenbury
Review by: Blake Zhang
Rating: ★★
Momma’s Got a Brand New Toy Kitchen is a work-in-progress stand-up show that is still finding its shape. There is a lot of energy and personality here, but the show does not yet feel fully formed, and the small audience on the night made some of its interactive material harder to land.
Written and performed by Bex Turner, the show takes its title from a toy kitchen she received as a child and looks back at her childhood and school years. Much of the material comes from awkward and embarrassing moments, alongside her experiences of being neurodivergent and autistic. Bex is very willing to make herself the joke, and there is a real physicality to her comedy. She repeatedly pours water over herself during the show, turning what could be a simple gag into one of the recurring images of the performance.
For 50 minutes, Bex is full of energy. She is a confident performer with a strong stage presence, and there are several moments of audience interaction throughout the show. On the night I saw it, however, there were not many people in the room, and the atmosphere was understandably quite quiet. Some of these moments therefore struggled to get going. This may partly be down to marketing, as audience interaction can be harder to pull off when the room is small.
The same applies to some of the more surreal jokes. I have to be honest: there were moments when I simply did not get the joke. At the same time, I could see other people in the audience enjoying them. That made me think less about whether the jokes were objectively funny and more about who the show is for. Bex has a particular comic voice, and finding the audience that connects with that voice will be an important part of taking the show further.
The production is also still quite bare-bones. There is not yet a strong sense of direction, while Bex has to control the sound and music herself during the performance. None of this is unusual for a work-in-progress, but it does sometimes make the show feel less polished than it could be.
I wonder if the next step might be to bring a small creative team into the process. Bex clearly has plenty of ideas and the confidence to perform them, but having someone else help shape the structure, direction and technical side could give her more space to concentrate on the writing and performance itself. The material is already there; it now needs a clearer shape around it.
What stayed with me most, though, was Bex's honesty. Turning your own childhood awkwardness, embarrassing memories and experiences of being different into comedy takes a certain amount of courage. She is completely willing to look ridiculous on stage, whether that means putting herself at the centre of an uncomfortable story. Even when a joke did not work for me, I could still appreciate how openly she presents herself.
Bex Turner is clearly a talented comedian, and there is something worth developing here. Momma’s Got a Brand New Toy Kitchen is not there yet, but Bex has the energy, personality and commitment to make it work. I hope she keeps developing the show, finds the audience that gets her humour, and eventually brings a more fully formed version of it to Soho Theatre.