Claire Ford : Unboxed, The Caves, Edinburgh Fringe

Cardboard boxes featured heavily in a show that mixed stand up, sketches and AV material.  Her father ran a packaging company, and cardboard has literally been prominent in her life, but being boxed in by circumstances was the real underlying theme.  In her opening lines she told us this was a story of her life, but written as she wanted and not always true, and in retrospect this felt like a mistake.

Ford takes us through some of the major events in her life, sometimes acting out conversations with others, sometimes showing film footage from TV or taken herself, interspersed by narration.  The sketches work well, and her brilliant acting and physical comedy abilities shine through.  The stand up bits les so, where she seems far less sure of herself, and even managed to miss out a chunk of the show.  It feels under rehearsed, lacking belief, a work in progress.

Then there's the structure.  Two traumatic events - the suicide of her brother and the death of her father - are introduced to us almost incidentally, without the build up in tension they deserved.  I'm assuming these were real life happenings, but at the time it was hard to know how to react.

All of which makes this show sound like a flop.  But Ford has such an endearing stage persona that you find yourself willing her to do well, and there are plenty of laughs.  Yet there's sense that there is a very good show buried in here that needs to be dragged out.  Personal tragedy is a staple of good comedy, but needs to be handled in a way that brings the audience along on the journey, not leaving them confused about where they fit in.  Unboxed doesn't manage that feat.  Well, not yet.  I'd love to see a better written version back on the Fringe next year.

Claire Ford : Unboxed is in The Caves at 14.00 until 26 August.