Counter Culture

Venue 156. 12:50. until 27th August

Elizabeth McGeown – a three times All-Ulster/Northern Ireland Poetry Slam champion – brings her poetry to a live Edinburgh Fringe audience for the first time. She claims to be better online than in real life, but that’s just not true.

Her command of language as she recounts stories in verse of great encouraging teachers, bullying in school, and her struggles to fit into society, is electrifying. She references popular books and films in her works.

Some folk – often for good reason – avoid poetry readings fearing that they’ll be bored rigid. Not so with Elizabeth McGeown in Cockroach. This one-woman show isn’t merely a reading; it’s an immersive dive into her struggle for acceptance and confident self-expression. Her language pours out of her lips in punchy assertive verse. Like a flood tide, she sweeps her audience away with her. It’s powerful stuff.

Reviewed by David Kerr