Fiona Allen does not like her neighbours. But in her stand-up routine about a gruelling attempt to find the perfect white lie to get out of a dinner party with them, she doesn’t make for the best company herself. While the Smack The Pony star has a charming, blunt sense of humour, her jabs rarely meet a standard that feels like they’ve been polished for a Fringe run. And tonight, they’re not delivered in a style that suggests she cares enough to do so. While it’s perfectly believable that she’s chosen to play a caricature of a misanthropic, northern suburban mum as she complains about her husband’s morning positivity or her kids’ inability to respect the empty nest, her performance lacks the absurdism to pull it off.

Instead, after the seventh joke about ‘Granite Janet’, her obnoxious neighbour with the showy kitchen island, Allen’s cynical shtick runs dry. She does find common ground with the audience over a couple of wisecracks at meditation and Lycra, and the impression of her Spanish mother having no time for her suburban problems provides a refreshing pitstop. But White Lies is better suited for a mimosa-fuelled brunch-time debrief than an hour of stand-up. 

Fiona Allen: White Lies, Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 29 August, 6pm; picture: Natasha Pszenicki.

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