Sweaty palms, racing heart and a mind that just won't stop worrying. Welcome to the world of anxiety, or to be more specific: General Anxiety Disorder. Through a variety of songs, anecdotes and some unique storytelling, Lucy Gransbury's I'm Fine! is an enjoyable journey into the thought process and coping mechanisms of an anxiety sufferer through comedy.Gransbury let's us know from the start that she has been seeing a psychologist to treat her anxiety and like all good psychological disorders, her anxiety seems to have stemmed from her childhood. She shares with us a notebook that she would write in from when she was 8 years old that includes a list of her wishes and also a list of people she wishes would die. She lets us in on a number of her teenage idiosyncrasies including one involving Ian Thorpe that thanks to Gransbury's ability to tell a story makes it sound much creepier and wrong than one would think - or maybe it's because I did something similar in my youth that the story itself doesn't sound so bizarre.
Accompanied on piano by Stacey-Louise Camilleri, Gransbury performs a number of well-known songs with re-written anxiety-focused lyrics. This includes the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" where what she really really really wants is to go back to bed and my personal favourite, The Sound of Music's "Do Re Mi" to list the number of ways she can be socially awkward and anxious. Her touching cover of Lucy Spraggan's "Tea & Toast" is well placed within the show and not only allows the audience a moment to stop and reflect on their own lives, but also for Gransbury to display her versatility as a singer.
While Gransbury spends most of the show talking about the root of her anxiety from when she was a child, I'm Fine! is an intimate adult reflection on how anxiety can easily stay with you well into adulthood. While she doesn't make any declarations of being cured, it becomes clear that sometimes all you need to do is acknowledge the anxiety to make it lessen its impact. However, this is still a comedy cabaret, and with her cheeky humour and affable nature, Gransbury makes sure that things never get too heavy or dark and providing the audience with plenty of laughs.
Show Information
Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne
Season: Until 17 September | 8:00pm
Length: 60 minutes
Tickets: $32 Full | $28 Conc
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival
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