Brief Tales at the Edinburgh Fringe 2025
One moment Joanna Weinberg could be self-mocking, and the next she could deliver a line that stopped the laughter and made you think about the cost of choices, the scars left by experience, and the compromises that shape a life. That balance between lightness and depth gave the performance its emotional weight. It was not simply entertainment but a sharing of hard-won wisdom dressed in humour and music.
The underwear metaphor, which I didn’t fully grasp at first, grew on me as the evening went on. At first glance it seemed a quirky frame, but it gradually revealed itself as a clever device. The underwear drawer is where we keep the most personal and often least glamorous aspects of ourselves, tucked away and rarely shown. By taking us through her drawer, Weinberg was offering us not a glossy public image but the hidden fabric of her life: the practical, the frayed, the intimate, and the cherished. It gave the piece both structure and honesty, a way of signalling that nothing here was going to be airbrushed.
By the end of Brief Tales I felt that I wanted to know more about her, not so much because she had left things unsaid but because she came across as someone who has lived deeply and reflected carefully. Although I am curious as to why her parent’s wouldn’t let her have Barbie dolls!
Joanna is not only a versatile performer but also a thinker, using her craft to make sense of life’s absurdities and challenges. I’ve already resolved to watch her film The Goddess and to keep an eye out for her future shows. Weinberg has that rare quality of leaving you curious for more, which is perhaps the best recommendation any performer can earn. Brief Tales was warm, frank, funny and moving—a small show with big resonance.
Reviewed by Pat Harrington
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